


Be Our Guest

by TheHomestuckWhovian



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Beauty and the Beast Elements, Friendship, Gen, Juno Steel Needs a Hug, M/M, Peter Nureyev is gay for Juno Steel's voice, Rita & Juno Steel are Best Friends, Romance, are there antagonists or just depressed people looking for revenge? you'll never know, basically the basic premise is there but i fuck it up because you can't stop me!, healing is stored in the rita, i don't know if this counts as slowburn but compared to canon it might as well be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 38,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23727007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHomestuckWhovian/pseuds/TheHomestuckWhovian
Summary: When a heist goes wrong, Peter runs and ends up lost in the woods...until he finds a seemingly forgotten castle.(AKA, a Beauty and the Beast AU I put way too much effort into)
Relationships: Cassandra Kanagawa & Cecil Kanagawa, Cassandra Kanagawa & Juno Steel, Cecil Kanagawa & Juno Steel, Mick Mercury & Juno Steel & Sasha Wire, Peter Nureyev & Rita, Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, Rita & Juno Steel
Comments: 64
Kudos: 171





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I basically [liveblogged](https://boopboopitydoop.tumblr.com/post/616418702605303808/the-end-word-count-holy-shit) the sheer insanity of me realizing how long this story was going to be. It is officially the longest story I've ever written and for a completely new fandom from all my other works. This is my first Penumbra Podcast fic so I'm sorry if the characters are in anyway OOC because I'm still getting a feel for their perspectives.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this monstrosity. I promise it's not just a retread of the Disney movie.
> 
> This story was beta read by my sibling, [TechnicalMachine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnicalMachine). They are amazing and have a couple of fics of their own if you like Megamind and/or the Hollow!

Peter Nureyev was used to running, though in all honesty he hadn't expected to have to run so quickly, or that he'd be followed so far.

It was a simple heist, everything was going to plan, and then a knight walked into the room just as he was liberating it of some jewels, which he wasn't actually hired to retrieve but he thought that necklace would look very nice with a pair of earrings he already owned and by the time he got the chance to regret the decision he was already lost in the woods and he could still hear horses.

He imagined Mag would make a remark starting with "lesson one of thieving" but Peter hadn't been inclined to think about what Mag thought in a long time. The dead didn't lecture on proper thieving procedure, after all, and while the blood under his fingernails was long gone he swore he could feel it every time he thought of the man.

Normally, the occasional chase was fun. Not now though. Not when he had no idea where in the woods he was, and the maps he had memorized had ultimately proven useless. On the bright side, the farther he went, the quieter the sounds of people chasing him got. But the more concerning downside was that the farther he went, the longer it would take to find his way out.

Eventually, the sounds of horses and shouting were distant, and his breathing was heavy in a way it hadn't been since he was just a child on the streets. Looking up, there was no sun through the clouds to help him guess the direction, and the trees all looked very much like each other.

He had well and truly fucked himself over. For a necklace.

Oh well. Not all heists went smoothly. He'd simply have to keep walking and hope that he'd be out of the woods before nightfall. If he was lucky, he wouldn't even have to camp.

He hated camping.

(He wasn't sure if it was because he had gotten used to having a reliable bed to sleep on or if it was because Mag had enjoyed it, making jokes about family bonding that rang bitter, now that he knew that Mag's idea of family wasn't quite as perfect as Peter had thought.)

* * *

He couldn't recall when the rain began, only that it was fierce and heavy and he had been drenched in seconds. Then the lightning had begun, and Peter knew that camping was going to be even less pleasant without such necessities as a fire and a dry place to sleep.

At least, until a lightning flash illuminated a castle. A castle that he hadn't seen on his maps.

Maybe he was lucky after all.

He quickly prepared a name and a story, but soon realized it probably wouldn't be necessary. The castle was dark, not a single illuminated window as far as he could see, and it was silent in the way castles so rarely were. Likely abandoned, he guessed, as he approached the doors and pulled one open with an audible creak. He shivered as he stepped into the empty dark hall, looking around before finding a candle that he quickly lit with a somehow dry match that had been buried in his pockets. And with that, he went to find a place to sleep.

Except...well...

There were a lot of beautiful, expensive things in every room he saw. And they were all in surprisingly good condition, despite the castle being abandoned. And it wasn't like anyone was going to miss them, so he began to grab what was small enough to carry on his person and start cataloging what he'd have to come back to retrieve later. He could use the extra funds, after all, for when jobs got few and far between during the winter.

He opened a door at the end of a hallway, excited by the amazing find, and found his smile drop as he was face-to-face (or, more accurately, face-to-chest) with something that definitely wasn't human.

The creature was tall, with teeth sharper than Peter's and much more terrifying, a scarred face with thick fur, and built like an incredibly fucked up, fully bipedal bear. And it had almost glowing golden eyes that would have possibly been the most terrifying part if they hadn't been staring at Peter with the most incredulous expression he had seen in a long time.

"The hell did you come from?" the monster asked, in an alarmingly human voice, before looking at the jewelry spilling out of Peter's pockets. "Are you seriously-"

With his self-preservation instincts finally operating again, Peter swiftly pulled out a knife and held it up, holding himself taller and more confidently than he felt in the moment.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," the monster growled in annoyance, and Peter moved to strike.

The fight was short, unsurprisingly. Peter managed to get a decent cut into the monster's arm, but once it managed to get the knife away from him all it really had to do was pick Peter up, pining his arms to his sides, and there was nothing more he could do but kick and scream.

The monster carried the struggling thief to a random bedroom, dropping him on the bed without ceremony, its voice colored with exhaustion and annoyance as it muttered to itself. Peter was on his feet again just as the monster stopped in the doorway, but before he could do anything it looked back at him with those frightful golden eyes and told him, "I'll deal with you later. I'm too tired for this shit right now." And with that, the door shut and there was the click of a lock.

* * *

Peter had to admit, his lock-picking had improved over the years. He would have been impressed with himself for how quickly he had done it, except the monster had apparently predicted that he would attempt to pick the lock because the door was blocked by something too heavy for him to move. He had gone for the window, except he was no longer on the first floor and with the rain battering the sides of the stone castle it was unsafe to climb down even if he could open the damn thing, which a couple of tries had told him was unlikely.

He was well and truly captured, at least for now.

This was an old castle, and he was clearly in the room of a noble. Despite the mess his rain-soaked self had made of the bed, the bedspread was clearly once very fine, as were the curtains and the decorations. It wasn't completely out of the question that there was an alternate exit.

He just needed to find it.

* * *

"Now Mistah Steel, you didn't have to be that rude!"

"He pulled a knife on me, Rita!" he argued, wincing slightly as Rita slathered something over the cut, something that stung. He hadn't caught the name of it in any of her rambling explanations. "After stealing from my home! I'm not sure if this is still a thing humans do, but I'm pretty sure no one would have blamed me if I had killed the guy."

"...Alright, that's fair," she acquiesced, continuing to work on the cut. "Still, what are ya gonna do with him now? You can't just keep him trapped in there forever, can you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course not. I was actually going to ask if you could take him back to the village with you."

"Why me?"

"Because I can't keep him here, in case he decides to pull a knife on me again, if I just let him go he might pull a knife on me and then get himself killed in the woods, and if I take him to the village then I'm going to have to deal with fire and pitchforks and knights. I'll think of an appropriately terrifying threat to make sure he doesn't pull a knife on you."

"Aw, thanks Mistah Steel!" She patted his arm just above the cut and he sighed, trying to avoid letting any sign of fondness show. It wasn't like he was going to let her get hurt doing a favor for him, especially considering she was the only person around he could actually talk to anymore.

"So, when do you plan on getting him?" 

"Oh, he's already out," he remarked plainly, glancing behind Rita and gesturing with his good arm towards the man unsuccessfully hiding in the shadows, looking slightly less like a drowned rat. He was still shivering though, which would be concerning if he hadn't pulled a knife on him.

"Yes, and I would very much appreciate it if you let me go," the thief spoke up, his voice furious. The effect was lost with his shaking; he looked cold and off balance.

Rita nodded cheerfully. "Don't worry, I'll be walking with you over to the village in a little bit. Just gotta finish fixin' up Mistah Steel." She turned her attention back to the cut and continued, "You'd think after fifteen years of knowing me and me helpin' him out, he'd know how to clean and dress his own wounds, but no. He just thought he could slap a bandage on it and call it a day. Honestly Mistah Steel, I don't know how you survive by yourself." She took out another concoction and began spreading it over the wound. "And you were even gonna go hunting too! Without makin' sure the bandage was secure!" She glanced over at the thief, who looked confused, adding, "I'm Rita, by the way. Looks like you had a rough night, gettin' manhandled by Mistah Steel over a little misunderstanding-"

"He pulled a knife on me!"

"-but don't worry, I'll get you back to civilization in no time!" Rita laughed lightly. "These woods are tricky, ya know? Gotta have grown up in 'em to know how to get around 'em." She looked over again and frowned. "Oh jeez, you look like you're gonna freeze. C'mon over here, there's a fire goin' and everything."

The thief looked at Rita, then glanced at Steel with a fearful look. And yeah, it hurt, but he could understand that.

"He's not going to come over while I'm here, Rita," he told her, and Rita pouted at that, before carefully wrapping a bandage around the cut and securing it.

"Alright, well now that I've got ya all cleaned up, I can take ya guest off your hands. Ya better remember how to care for it, Mistah Steel."

He sighed, and this time it _was_ fond. "Yeah yeah, I know Rita. I won't let it get infected again."

Rita nodded firmly, turning to the thief and starting to say something, when she noticed him swaying precariously. "Um, Mistah? Are you okay?"

"I..." The thief looked down at the floor with a sort of dazed expression. "I think..." 

Then he fell over, and it exploded into chaos.

* * *

When Peter was conscious again, the woman, Rita, was hovering over him, a stern expression that seemed out of character compared to her earlier behavior, and she kept looking over at something a bit away.

"Mistah Steel, do you remember the ingredients I asked you to help me to get last time we went exploring?" Rita asked. "I need ya to go get them so I can make something to bring his fever down."

"On it." He could hear heavy footsteps distantly, and he attempted to sit up only for his dizziness to send him laying back down on what had to be a couch, right?

"Alright Mistah, looks like the rain last night didn't do ya much good. Did you get any sleep last night or were ya just looking for a way out of that room?"

He hadn't slept. He had searched the room until he had succeeded, finding a secret passageway that he hadn't expected, but was a welcome surprise. It had been dark, lit only by a small candle and match that he had found in his pockets and left to dry out while he had been searching, and he could actually see little signs that there had once been life in the castle, childish carvings in wood beams of smiley faces and flowers and "Sasha was here" and "Juno ate my son" and "Mick Mercury: King of the Tunnels". He had wondered if the monster had killed everyone in the castle before making it its home.

Rita suddenly snapped in his face. "Focus, Mistah. Looks like ya got a fever from bein' out in the rain, and the lack of sleep didn't help any. I got Mistah Steel gettin' me some things to help reduce the fever but I need ya to work with me, got it?"

And he nodded, unsure what else to do.

"Alright," she answered. "By the way, what's your name?"

He gave her the first alias that came to mind, and immediately regretted it.

"Peter Ransom."

(He hadn't used that name since Mag was still alive, when they used to play at being father and son for a con. He thought maybe Mag had forgotten one of his own lessons there. "Don't fall for your own lies.")

But Rita couldn't know the importance, so all she said was, "Alright Mistah Ransom. Let's just hope you're better at listening to instructions than Mistah Steel is."

* * *

He brought back more than what Rita needed, just in case. Fuck it, he didn't particularly want anyone else to die in this shithole of a castle, even if the guy had pulled a knife on him.

Rita took the ingredients with a smile, before adding, "I'll handle the gross potion stuff. Can ya make some soup for Mistah Ransom?"

"Sure," he agreed. "That the name he gave you?"

"Yep." She began working in one part of the massive kitchen, while he started in another. "Fake, obviously. Didn't think he was gonna give me a real one. Seems like he's one of those gentlemen thief types, when he's not laid up with a fever. Mistah Mystery and all that stuff. Like a character out of a book."

Steel nodded, very carefully grabbing a knife and some ingredients once he finished washing his hands. "Yeah, makes sense. I'd ask why he was looting, but I've chased away enough criminals to know this place looks like a treasure trove. First time one tried to pull a knife on me though." 

"Well, the firsts are always the most fun, aren't they?" Rita remarked. "After all, I was the first one not ta be scared of you, and here we are!"

He sighed, a smile on his face that probably would have scared anyone that wasn't Rita, who seemed to think he was just a giant deformed teddy bear. "Yeah yeah, okay. But you at least didn't pull a knife on me."

They continued with their individual tasks, Rita chattering along as they did, and it was...nice. Fifteen years ago, Steel had been sure he'd never have positive human contact again. And yet, Rita had shown up, and she hadn't left despite the many attempts to scare her off, so he had stopped trying. He didn't know who it said more about, that she was friends with a monster or-

"Oh, almost forgot!" Rita closed her eyes and began humming a tune, and her hand around the bowl she was mixing the potion in sparkled with pink light. "Just a little kick to help it work faster!"

-or that he was friends with a witch after everything.

Once Steel had clumsily ladled the soup into a bowl, he gave it to Rita, noting, "Probably won't help things if I get close to him. Especially if he's delirious."

"Now Mistah Steel," Rita began, and he groaned.

"I know I know, just because I look like this doesn't mean I'm a bad guy and people would see that if I gave them the chance to, I know. But," he held up a clawed finger, "you are a tiny, adorable ball of energy that he is going to trust to take care of him a lot more without the terrifying looking monster he probably thinks is planning on eating him hanging over your shoulder. Especially since, right now, he can't exactly get to know me that well. Because he's sick."

"Flattery will getcha nowhere, Mistah Steel," Rita remarked, even while preening slightly at the word adorable. "But alright. Don't want him to get stabby right now, since he's probably sick enough to hurt himself instead. Do ya mind if I stay the night so I can monitor his condition?"

"Not like you need an invitation anymore."

* * *

"Here you are, Mistah Ransom!" Rita remarked cheerfully, carrying a mug and a bowl. She handed him the former first, explaining, "Drink the whole thing, then eat the soup. It'll make ya drowsy but it should help with the fever."

Peter looked at the cup for a moment, than looked up at Rita suspiciously. She seemed alright, but she also interacted closely with the monster, who he still didn't trust. How could he be sure to trust her?

She seemed to pick up on this, sighing and taking a sip, her mouth screwing up at the taste. "Ugh, it tastes pretty nasty but it'll be effective." She held out the mug to him, which he now took reluctantly and began to drink. He nearly gagged at the taste, but forced himself to finish. Then, once Rita took a sip of the soup, he accepted the bowl from her and began to eat.

It tasted much better than the medicine.

"Did you make this?" he asked, and she laughed.

"Nah, I'm good at making potions that keep people alive, not so much with food. Mistah Steel says my tastebuds are broken because I like weird stuff that most people don't." She shook her head. "But no, Mistah Steel made the soup."

He blinked, surprised. "...How?" He didn't know how the creature had managed to cut the vegetables or even cook with those claws, not to mention how large he was in general.

"Lot's of practice," she answered cheerfully. "He's got good fine motor skills with his claws, though it took him a while. I think he likes it though."

Peter glanced at the bowl hesitantly, before sighing and continuing to eat. It was good, probably one of the better dishes he had in a while, and the warmth of the soup made him tired. Rita chattered on about a book she had been reading, unbothered by the fact that he was too tired to contribute.

Eventually, he fell back asleep.

* * *

When Peter woke up, he flinched slightly at the huge, hulking monster that was leaning over the fireplace, only to relax when he realized the creature, Mr. Steel, as Rita kept calling him, was focused on the fireplace instead of him.

"Feeling better, Ransom?" Mr. Steel asked, glancing up from the fireplace over at him. His golden eyes were still haunting, but Peter tried not to let them bother him right now.

"Rita told you?" Peter asked, and Mr. Steel snorted.

"Nah, used my spooky monster powers to read your mind," he joked, and Peter gave a small, amused huff at that. "Anyway, we both figured that's not your real name, but, considering you were attempting to loot this place, that's probably for a good reason."

Peter, mildly embarrassed, asked, "Well, Rita calls you Mr. Steel. Do you have a first name?"

"I do," Mr. Steel answered, grimacing as he tried to do...something, at the fireplace.

There was a silent moment, before Peter asked, "Well, what is it?"

"Can't tell you." He let out a small, victorious noise as he managed a spark into the fireplace, setting what must have been kindling alight. "Weird magic whatever. Not really an expert but it's probably because if I have a name then I'm easier to relate to or something? It's a lot of complicated stuff but basically, can't say my first name. Rita figured out the last name work around, since it's not just my name, it's a family name. So yeah, you can just call me Steel."

Peter frowned. "That sounds annoying."

"Yeah, well, that's been my life for nineteen years. You'd be surprised what you get used to in that time."

He could certainly understand that.

It was quiet for a moment, as Steel tended the fire. The motions were practiced, as if he was used to having to carefully avoid the fur on his hands from catching as he helped it to its full size. Once that was done, he set the supplies aside and stood to his full, intimidating height.

"I'll leave you alone now. Rita will come by to check on you at some point."

"Of course." Then, just before Steel was about to leave, Peter added, "Thank you for the soup last night. It was delicious."

Those frightful golden eyes blinked, as if surprised, before he nodded and gave a terse, "No problem," before leaving the room.

Hmm...

* * *

Rita liked Mister Ransom, she decided. He was polite, for someone who had tried to steal from her best friend and then, as Mister Steel kept reminding everyone, pulled a knife on him. Definitely not very trusting, kept insisting Rita taste anything she brought even after it was pretty clear that she was actively invested in keeping him alive, but he was nice enough about it that she didn't mind too much.

It was pretty obvious that he wasn't from around the area, both from his accent and the fact that he admitted, after some prodding, that he would actually need a guide out of the forest, and thus wouldn't mind so much if Rita led him out once he felt better.

After he admitted to wanting some entertainment while still on bedrest, Rita offered to go grab a couple of books from her house and bring them back, which he had been grateful for, which had led to where she was now, walking out of the woods into the village.

"Hey Rita!" Mick called from in front of his bookstore. "Haven't seen you in a couple of days! Everything alright?"

"Just had to pick up some stuff, Mistah Mercury!" Rita called back, holding up her basket. Then, she noticed a piece of paper nailed to the wall of the store. "Uh, what's that?"

Mick blinked, before looking at the paper and sighing. "Oh yeah, some knights came by a couple of days ago and nailed that up. Wish they had asked, since I just repainted the store last week, y'know, but I guess if it'll help them catch the guy?"

Rita nearly swore under her breath as she got a closer look, before ripping it off the wall and shoving it in her basket. She pulled the nail out after it and waved a sparkling pink hand over the hole, making it disappear.

"There, a little Rita magic to fix it for you," she told him as cheerfully as she could manage. Mick was one of the few people in the village who knew of her more magical talents, since most just assumed she was a normal apothecary, so she didn't mind so much if he saw than if someone else did. "I gotta go back in the woods for a few more days in a bit, so don't worry if ya don't see me."

"Alright! Oh, and that new book in that series you like is supposed to arrive soon! I'll save you a copy!"

Rita grinned, practically sparkling at that, and shouted, "You better!" before hurrying back to her house and shutting the door behind her, pulling out the paper from her basket and looking over it.

It was a wanted poster for a Mister Rex Glass, which wouldn't have bothered her except that the portrait on it, while imperfect, was clearly meant to be Mister Ransom.

That was...not good.

* * *

Steel could tell Ransom was still wary of him, shifting uncomfortably when he got close to bring him food and his medicine.

"Rita usually tastes it," Ransom insisted, a little hesitantly, and Steel raised an eyebrow, which, at the very least, he had been allowed to have.

"Oh no, you figured it out our evil plan. Rita saved you from the fever cooking you from the inside out just so we could poison you."

Ransom hummed a little awkwardly at that, recognizing the silliness of it, and hesitantly took a bite of the food. Then he kept eating, because Steel wasn't good at much but, after fifteen years of practice, he was a pretty good cook.

"So...what exactly happened to everyone here?" Ransom finally asked, and Steel wanted to cringe. "I must admit, I assumed the worst at first. However, given Rita has apparently been a frequent visitor for over a decade..." He hesitated awkwardly.

"I probably didn't murder all of them?" Steel filled in, a little annoyed. "Yeah, they all left years ago. Last of them got scared away by me, thought I was going to eat them or something. Was already pretty empty at that point." He sat down on the floor by the couch Ransom was on. "Most people don't really find out I'm not planning on eating them alive because they're too busy running away screaming or trying to kill me. Don't exactly have a taste for human flesh though. Apparently I was a biter as a kid, but never exactly got farther than that."

Ransom snorted at that, continuing to eat. "Well, I suppose I should be relieved that you are a gentleman monster."

"More of a lady, actually," Steel corrected, trying not to wince too much at the word "monster", and Ransom blinked.

"Oh. My apologies."

"It's fine. Not really male or female. I'm fine with he and him but not all the male words work? It's complicated."

Ransom nodded. "It often is."

They sat in silence for a while, which was broken by Rita bursting into the room shouting, "We got a problem!" and causing both of them to jump.

Steel sighed. "Is this serious or did the bookstore forget to hold a book for you again?"

"I found this in the village," Rita explained, her voice at lightning speed, pulling a piece of paper from her bag. "I was on my way to my house when I saw it nailed to the bookstore and I realized it looked familiar because the name may be wrong but the picture looks just like Mistah Ransom!"

And it did. It wasn't a perfect recreation of the man's face, which was sharp but not to the inhuman way in the picture, but it was accurate enough to tell who they were intending to depict if you already knew what Ransom looked like.

Shit.

"This isn't good," Ransom whispered, looking pale for more reasons than being sick. "Was this the only one?"

Rita shook her head. "I pulled down all the ones I saw after I grabbed the books for ya, but they'd already been up a couple of days apparently so everyone's seen 'em. Knowing the knights, every town around the forest has got 'em up."

"Shit," he said, this time outside of his own head. He looked at Ransom and asked, "The hell did you do?"

Ransom, a bit sheepishly, admitted, "I may have...liberated a noblewoman of some precious documents...and a few jewels."

Steel smacked his hand against his face. Of course. Of course he was harboring a fugitive. Of course.

"What kind of documents?" he asked, glaring.

Ransom frowned. "I fail to see what that has to do with-"

Steel bit back a growl as he repeated himself. " _What kind of documents?_ "

There was silence for a moment as the two stared at each other, before Ransom finally grimaced and answered, "I was hired by her son to find evidence of her framing her political enemies for crimes they didn't commit and bribing knights to ensure those enemies didn't survive to make it to jail. One of the victims of this was a friend of his but he needed proof so he could take this information to the queen. The jewels were just for myself, as I doubted she'd need them, wherever she ended up once the queen knew what she had done." He gave Steel a fierce glare. "So I would appreciate it if you stopped acting as if I were a murder suspect."

Steel took a deep breath and sighed. That would explain why the wanted posters had gotten out so quick. Knights really varied, but the kind that showed up in the area around the woods were a proud bunch who wouldn't appreciate a thief getting away, especially one who got away with evidence of them being corrupt.

"Do you got those documents still, Mistah Ransom?" Rita asked, and Ransom blinked before nodding, reaching in his pocket (how deep did they go anyway?) and pulling out a thick stack of papers.

"They were damaged in the rain," Ransom noted, "so I doubt they'll be worth anythi-"

"Shh," Rita interrupted, and Ransom, looking offended, started to say something. Steel gave him a look and shook his head though, and before he could respond to that, Rita had begun to hum.

Her hands sparkled with pink light, as they always did when she used magic, and the pages flattened themselves out in her hand, faded running ink flowing back into uniform written letters. And then, the magic was gone, and the water damage was gone.

"How...how did you-"

"Just a little Rita magic!" she explained cheerfully, waving the fingers of one of her hands and letting pink sparks fly off of them. "You're lookin' at the best witch this side of the woods!" She carefully straightened out the papers and added, "I can deliver them to your client for ya, if you want? Make sure that noble lady gets what's coming to her?"

"...Yes, I would appreciate that," he admitted, once the shock subsided a bit. "I suppose that explains some things."

Rita just grinned at that, before adding, "Anyway, looks like you'll have ta stay here until things die down a bit. I can go to some towns I know and get rid of posters, but interesting stuff like fugitives don't happen much around this area, so people are probably gonna recognize you if ya try and head into civilization."

Ransom blinked. "Are...are you seriously agreeing to help me? I'm a fugitive."

"Well ya ain't that bad, far as I can tell," Rita noted. "Besides, we already knew you were a thief. Not like we're surprised or anything."

"Yeah, and it's not like I've got any love for knights either," Steel added. "Haven't met one yet that hasn't tried to kill me. But I'm pretty good at scaring them off, so you won't have to worry about them finding you here while you wait for things to die down. Might as well commit to the keeping-you-alive thing."

Ransom stared at the two of them, as if trying to understand, before Rita said, "We aren't just gonna throw ya to the wolves, Mistah Ransom. We wanna help ya because it's the nice thing to do."

"And sticking it to corrupt nobles is fun," Steel added, earning an elbow in the side from Rita that he pretended hurt more than it did.

"I...well, I suppose it is in my best interest to stay," he decided. "...Thank you."

* * *

Peter, begrudgingly, knew he would have to trust these two. A witch and a monster were not even close to what he could have expected in the way of allies, but he supposed that, as a thief, he fit right along in with being distrusted by the general populace to the point of violence towards him.

Rita hadn't mentioned it, but Peter was well aware of the ways witches were treated by many. She was lucky to have lived as long as she had without getting burnt at the stake or murdered in some other gory fashion by manic, distrusting townspeople. Especially considering her association with a monster, even if said monster was less murderous and more simply tired and unwilling to be bothered.

It was easier to trust Rita than Steel, admittedly. Rita was cheerful and pleasant and had made it clear that she intended to keep him alive and help in any way she could. Steel, on the other hand...well, abrasive was not a strong enough word. He seemed to have a moral compass, and he had seemed properly appalled to learn why Peter had been hired to steal those documents. That didn't help though, as he wasn't sure how much Steel fancied himself a knight in monstrous armor. If he decided Peter was too far from his sensibilities to let go, he might try and dispose of him himself, or leave him to the mercy of the knights.

Hopefully not though. Peter didn't have any other options.

Once they had talked through the arrangement some more, it was Rita who announced they needed to get him situated in an actual room. Once they were sure Peter could stand and walk without too much trouble, she dragged him down to a hall that was less dusty than the others, finding a room that appeared to be in good condition.

"My room for when I stay the night is right next door, and Mistah Steel is just beyond that," Rita explained. She then glanced over at Steel, asking, "Is this room good or is it an off-limits room?'

"Yeah, he can stay here," Steel answered. "Room across from mine and the one at the end if the hallway are off-limits though."

Rita rolled her eyes. "I know, Mistah Steel, you told me."

"Off-limits?" Peter asked, confused.

"Bad memories." The tone in Steel's voice made it clear they weren't going to talk about it. Peter would save looking around those rooms for later.

With that, Rita decided a tour was in order. Peter almost expected Steel to leave, but Rita grabbed the monster's arm expectantly and Steel, despite being able to easily escape, just sighed and allowed Rita to lead the way, with Peter in tow.

It was strange. To see a huge, terrifying beast with golden eyes and razor sharp teeth and scarred features and terrifying claws being tugged around with only some complaint by such a tiny woman, who didn't seem to care how easily Steel could kill her if he tried. And the fact that both of them maneuvered so easily around each other.

Fifteen years, Rita had said. That was a long time to know someone.

Peter looked at the two of them and he felt a pang of loneliness in his chest.

* * *

The woman clicked her nails to her desk as the hunters entered the room. Neither of them looked particularly happy to be there, although one put up a performance at joy. But no matter. She didn't need them to like her, she simply needed the job to be done, and she had the perfect incentive.

"What took you both so long?" she asked, and while one of the hunters gave an annoyed growl, the other simply smiled brightly.

"Oh, you know how busy we are. Lot's of traveling, even more killing. It's hard to find time to meet up! Did you need something from us?"

"Hmm..." She didn't like them much, but she had a role to play, and she had already done what she could to break the boundaries of that role, turn into something profitable for herself. Once this was done, she could wipe her hands clean of the work and continue on as she wanted. "Here." She turned and passed the angrier of the two a letter. "I feel the contents of this will be relevant to you both."

The angry hunter scowled, before ripping open the envelope and pulling from it a letter, the other leaning over to read it too.

The cheerful one's face fell, sadness before hardening into vicious fury. The angry one's anger just turned cold. Good.

They had wanted this, after all, and here she was, finally giving it to them.

"We'll need supplies," the angry one said, voice cold and ruthless. The woman was impressed. "Then we'll be off."

The cheerful one's smile returned, but it was twisted into something that may have been alarming to anyone else, but not to her. "I'll be sure to rip out the monster's spine. It'll look lovely with the rest of our trophies, don't you think?"

She watched the two of them leave, bickering between each other as they did, before turning to the window.

They would get what they wanted. A monster to kill in glorious battle. And as long as they asked for nothing else, she would be free from her role to continue her life as she wanted.

Besides, it would clean up the last of her messes, and no one would ever have to know she was involved.

* * *

"Excuse me, Steel?"

Steel groaned, looking up from the food he was preparing, and said, "Yes, you can take anything you want from the downstairs room you've been in for the last hour to sell. No one has cared about that shit in nearly twenty years, go nuts." This had not been the first time Ransom had asked if he could take something, and he was getting tired of him asking.

"No, that wasn't what I was asking," Ransom said dismissively. "I already took everything of value from there. I was just going to ask about the secret passageways. Were you aware they were there?"

"Yeah, I figured they were how you got out of the room I locked you in after you threatened me with a knife," he answered, turning back to the food. "This place is full of them. Think the original guy who built it distrusted pretty much everybody, so he built this nice castle isolated from everyone and had it filled with ways for him to make daring escapes in case someone tried to kill him."

Ransom, surprised, remarked, "That is...exceedingly paranoid."

"Not paranoid enough," Steel said. "He was murdered still."

"How?"

"Poisoning." Steel shrugged. "Anyway, I memorized them ages ago, but I can't fit in them now so you'll have to figure them out yourself. Rita won't go in them, insists they are almost certainly haunted. Said she read a book about it." He dumped the cut vegetables and meat into a pan and continued to work.

"Ah yes, speaking of books," Ransom continued, moving more properly into the kitchen. "I've already read through the books Rita brought, and I was wondering if there was a library in this castle?"

Steel laughed. "Yeah, but Rita already emptied it of all the interesting books. Unless you really want to read a detailed written history of the royal family and nobility."

He glanced at Ransom's appalled face and added, "Oh it gets worse. It's not just one book. There's like twenty books for the whole thing. It's the most boring history books you could ever touch because it's stuff no one cares about."

Ransom shook himself at that, looking disgusted. "Who would even write that?"

"Some old noble guy who thought nothing was more interesting than himself and other nobles," Steel answered, turning his attention back to the pan. "Unfortunately it's so comprehensive that they used it to teach noble kids. Not a member of nobility in the country who doesn't hate that fucking collection with a burning hatred. If you want the interesting stuff, talk to Rita. She's a big fan of fiction but she picks out the better nonfiction books too."

"Hmm...and what do you like to read?" Ransom asked, and Steel was surprised by the question.

"Uh...I don't," he admitted, holding up a clawed hand. "Cooking is one thing, but pages...they don't stand much of a chance against these." He sighed, focusing back on the food. "Would be nice if I could, but I don't exactly get a choice with my hands the way they are. Sometimes Rita will read aloud though. I guess I like mysteries."

He remembered being a kid, reading every mystery book he could find, trying to figure out the twist or who committed the crime before the characters could. He had even gotten pretty good at it too. It made him want to solve real mysteries.

Heh. Nothing to solve anymore.

Before Ransom could say anything, Steel said, "Anyway, the food's ready," and that was the end of that conversation.

* * *

Rita set a quick fire in the clearing around the castle, before dumping all the wanted posters she had found into the flames. The son of the corrupt noblewoman had promised to help on his end with stopping the manhunt for Mister Ransom, but Rita had still done her best to clear out the posters once she had delivered the documents.

She had also picked up a new book too, one that she thought Mister Steel might be interested in.

Once she was done with that, she quickly put out the fire and went inside, finding Mister Ransom sitting on the couch with a plate and fork while Mister Steel was on the floor.

"Hey Rita," Mister Steel greeted, gesturing to a plate sitting on the table. "How did the drop off go?"

"Alright," she answered. "He promised to do what he could ta stop the manhunt, but he can't guarantee anything until after he gives the documents to the queen. It was cool! I felt like one of those spies in that book I was reading the other day, doing a secret rendezvous with a mysterious nobleman with good intentions having to resort to hiring a criminal in order to help his people. Feels almost romantic, don't you think?"

"Not really," Mister Steel answered. "Kind of sad, actually."

"That's because you always focus on the depressing parts," she pointed out. "Which is fair, but not everything has gotta be depressing, y'know?"

Mister Steel shrugged, focusing on his food, and Mister Ransom piped up, "I understand what you mean, Rita."

She grinned at that. "Thank you, Mistah Ransom. Oh, how'd ya like those books I lent you?"

She and Mister Ransom chattered about books for a bit, and she could see Mister Steel relaxing a bit, like he always did when he pretended he didn't care but was enjoying the sound of her talking. 

Then, she remembered the book.

"Oh, Mistah Steel! I nearly forgot!" She tugged the book out of her basket. "I went to visit Frannie while I was in the city, since y'know I might as well, and she had a new book about research on curses. I'm gonna do some reading and it might help me see if I can find a way to break yours."

Mister Steel blinked, then nodded. "Yeah, if you think it'll help." He didn't sound like he believed there was a point.

"Aw c'mon Mistah Steel, don't give up hope," Rita insisted. "I know it's been a long time, but this book looks like it has some new stuff I didn't know about. Even if it won't help me break it, I can still probably learn more about how it works so we can figure it out eventually."

"Doesn't it feel kind of pointless though?" he asked. "We've been at it for fifteen years. You don't need to waste your energy on something that's not going to happen."

Rita pouted. That was just like Mister Steel. He had been trying to get her to quit for ages, but she knew how much it bothered him. She wasn't going to give up on her friend, not when he was clearly unhappy.

"Is this the curse you mentioned before?" Mister Ransom spoke up, and she remembered he was still there. "The one that won't allow you to say your name?"

"Yeah," Mister Steel answered. "Rita has been going at it for years, but she hasn't been able to make a dent in it."

Rita nodded sadly. "Yeah, it is too powerful for a witch's curse, otherwise I could have gotten rid of it. But the mechanics of it are the same though. You got the effects-" She gestured to Mister Steel, "-the condition, and the magic that keeps it running. Most curses require ya to fill the condition to end them, and once they break, the leftover magic is released back into the world depending on how the caster's magic manifests." She held up a hand and there was a burst of pink sparkles to illustrate her point. "The other way to break a curse is usually to find a way to divert the magic somewhere else, drain it away from its purpose and make the curse go away because it no longer has the magic to sustain itself. No dramatic magic stuff with that, just poof, back to normal."

Mister Ransom tilted his head. "I suppose that makes sense."

"The issue with Mistah Steel's curse is that someone is continuously dumping magic on it, keeping it goin' even when you try and drain the magic away," Rita continued. "Witches can't really afford to do that. Too much effort, it's exhausting, and they can't use their magic for anything else since any attempts to replenish it gotta go immediately back to the curse. Meaning a much more powerful magic user musta done it, like a fairy or a dragon, because they got the reserves to keep committing magic to a purpose. But even they usually don't, since there's not much point to it."

"Which means the lady who cursed me really hated my guts," Mister Steel remarked, finishing his food. "Because Rita has like twenty different enchanted necklaces now trying to drain magic away from it."

Mister Ransom stared at them for a moment, obviously surprised to hear about someone being so committed to cursing Mister Steel, before asking, "So...what is the condition?" Rita grimaced while Mister Steel scowled.

"Someone has to feel true love for me despite my looks, blah blah, whatever," he answered. "Because she thought the reason I didn't want her around was because she was ugly. It was actually because she was a creepy lady who broke into my house, made a lot of comments about how sad and lonely I was, then got angry when I told her to leave for breaking into my house and trying to lecture me on my life choices."

"True love curses are nasty business," Rita added, shaking her head. "Mostly cuz they are complicated and sometimes there are unspoken conditions because maybe the person casting the curse thinks true love is only romantic or that you have to do something dramatic for it to count or something, and so you have to fulfill their idea of true love and the curse almost never says." She glared at her plate. "I know there's some kinda unspoken condition on Mistah Steel's curse, but I don't know what it is. So I've been tryin' ta see if there's another way to break a curse like this, and I'm hoping this book will help me figure it out."

Mister Steel sighed. "You can give it a rest, Rita."

She shook her head. "No. I'm gonna figure it out. If there is an answer and I stop looking, then it won't matter if there's a way to fix it, because I won't have done it. 'sides, I know ya hate it still."

He sighed, reaching over and gently messing up her hair. "Yeah yeah, I know. Thanks Rita."

"...If it will help, maybe I can be a second pair of eyes while I'm here?" Mister Ransom asked. "It is...dreadfully boring otherwise, I'm afraid. I might as well."

"Really?!" Rita was on her feet in seconds. "Thank you Mistah Ransom! I have books on curses I can bring from my house tomorrow that you can look through to see if I missed anything! Oh I need to get back a few of the books back that I lent Frannie, but we can start with the ones I got!"

"Breathe, Rita," Mister Steel reminded her, and she pretended not to hear the note of fondness in his voice. "And...yeah, thanks Ransom."

"Considering you are allowing me to stay here despite being a fugitive, I do owe you one."

"Honestly, you owe me several with how much shit you're going to be taking out of here, but yeah."

* * *

_When he dreamed, he was human._

_It was less that he could see himself and more that, in his dreams, he no longer felt like he was struggling to fit in his body. It didn't feel like weird puppeteering in order to control his fingers, walking didn't fill him with a weird sense of vertigo from being too tall, he didn't feel like his mouth was going to burst with the amount of teeth in it._

_His body felt like his, in a way it hadn't since he was a stupid, grieving nineteen year old._

_And, in his dreams, there was that familiar face that made his chest ache with grief. A name that he could say if he wanted to, no choking golden magic blocking it, but wouldn't because it hurt. It hurt to say his name, hurt to think about him, hurt to remember the truth._

_He wasn't nineteen in his dreams, but that familiar boy was. Nineteen and bright and smug and happy and seemingly unaware of what would happen to him._

_He never remembered what they said to each other. Just like he never woke up knowing what he looked like, never woke up with more than the memory of a voice saying a familiar nickname, a laugh behind it that was as painful as that name, and a face that had once been a lot like his own._

He woke up, and reality was a body that was too big to fit and a brother who was gone forever. Just like nearly every other good thing he had had.

Steel didn't get to keep good things. And so he didn't bother trying anymore.

* * *

The books Rita had given him on curses were...a lot, Peter quickly realized. He had known enough about curses to understand they were unpleasant and that he should avoid them, but reading about the horrific effects of them academically was...intense, to say the least.

Rita noted the expression on his face and offered to switch books, but he shook his head and continued reading. While the effects of curses were...disturbing, the mechanics of magic were actually rather interesting.

"Rita?" he spoke up after a moment. "A quick question?"

"What is it?" she asked, looking up from her book.

"This book says that most curses are cast with passive magic in mind," he explained. "However, I'm not sure what passive magic is?"

"Oh!" Rita grinned. "Well, lotsa people, though not all of 'em, have passive magic. It's mostly abilities ya use unintentionally, and they don't cost much of anything. But when you got a curse, using passive magic will actually pull magic from that first. So unless ya know for sure the person you're cursing doesn't have passive magic, you gotta account for the possibility. It won't make much of a difference usually, but if the person uses their passive magic a lot, they might weaken the curse unintentionally." She shrugged. "Doesn't really apply in Mistah Steel's case, but passive magic is pretty useful most of the time."

"Huh." An interesting thought. "Does Steel have passive magic?"

"Oh yeah," she answered. "He's got an increased awareness of his surroundings. Hard to sneak up on him or pickpocket him unless he's distracted or drunk. He's already pretty good at noticing things on his own, but when he uses his passive magic then he'll pick up on things other people won't notice at all. He's gotten good at controlling when he uses it. It's something you can do once ya know you got it."

Peter nodded. "Interesting. Do witches have passive magic too?"

"Depends, just like with anybody else," Rita explained. "Frannie doesn't got any, but I do. When I'm around, injuries heal faster." She grinned at him. "Why do ya think Mistah Steel's arm healed so fast? Normally it wouldn't be so noticeable, but I got this to help me out." She reached into her shirt and pulled out a pendant on a chain, a pink crystal apple with a silver stem. "It's enchanted to enhance passive magic."

"Incredible," Peter whispered, and it was. "I'm surprised more people don't notice."

"Well normally it's not noticeable," she noted. "Most people don't know they got passive magic until its pointed out to 'em. Mistah Steel didn't realize he could basically know anything happening around him without trying until I pointed out most people can't do that." She pulled the chain of the pendant from around her neck and offered it to Peter, adding, "Here. A good way to see if you got passive magic is to make it powerful enough to notice."

"I see." He looked at the smooth pink crystal apple before slipping the chain around his neck, letting the pendant fall under his shirt. "Your passive magic seems to be relevant to your job. Is that merely a coincidence?"

"Eh, passive magic normally develops over time," she admitted. "Some people develop it pretty early on, if it's like necessary for survival or somethin'. It grows to fit you, you don't grow to fit it. That's also why not everybody has it. Sometimes ya just don't need it. My mom was also an apothecary and so I was around a lotta injured people as a kid, and I felt so bad for them that I just started spending little bits of magic ta help 'em out without intending to."

Peter frowned. "That seems...complicated."

She nodded, before holding up her hands. "Yeah well...think of it like this. Magic isn't bad or good, despite what some people might think. It's just energy, and its gotta go somewhere. But unlike energy, it really just wants to do what it's told to do. And most people can't communicate with magic to tell it what to do, so it just goes like normal energy."

She let a spark of pink light travel from one hand to another, illustrating her point.

"But sometimes, when you're really desperate, magic will hear ya and figure it out, and it'll respond because that's what it wants to do. It's a big ol' people pleaser after all, and given the chance to help, it will."

This time, she began to show the spark exiting one hand, but instead of hitting the other, it simply burst into pink sparkles, drifting down and winking out before hitting the floor.

"And after that, it'll just keep doing that when it needs to, because ya can't really communicate with it but it knows how to do that one thing ya told it to do once, so it'll do that. So that's how passive magic works. Difference between witches and humans is that witches got a lotta magic in them, that they can learn to use intentionally, but passive magic still works because you're always givin' off a little magic, intentionally or not."

"Hmm...and what about the other creatures you and Steel mentioned?" Peter couldn't help but be curious now that she had told him so much. He had never thought to learn about how magic worked, but it was hard to pass up the opportunity to learn more now.

She shrugged. "Fairies and dragons and stuff don't have passive magic, because they all have this sorta innate ability to communicate with it that they don't gotta learn, so they don't do accidental magic stuff. Witches have to figure it out on their own." She turned back to her book, adding, "That's why books are really important too. Witches can't really be super public with their stuff, without things getting dicey, so we all got our own networks to communicate so we can teach each other and trade knowledge through books and stuff. I've been gathering books on curses to help Mistah Steel for ages, and even doing that I'm always finding new stuff someone else figured out."

"Huh." Peter looked back over his book at that. "You must care about him a lot to be dedicating so much work to this."

"'Course I do!" Rita sighed, annoyed. "That's why I'm pretty sure there's an unspoken condition making things complicated. Because if there wasn't, then the curse would have been gone ages ago. Mistah Steel's basically family to me at this point. Like a very depressed, much taller little brother."

Peter laughed a bit at that, before focusing back on the book. He wasn't sure if he'd spot something Rita had missed, but it couldn't hurt to keep looking, just in case. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes was all that was needed.

He doubted it'd be that simple, but he had agreed to look. It was only fair he commit to it.

* * *

"Mistah Steel!"

He turned his attention from the wood he had been loading onto the pile to Rita, who was waving at him as she hurried over, dragging Ransom behind her.

"What is it this time, Rita?" he asked, placing the last of the wood on the pile. Winter would be coming soon, and while he was pretty sure he could handle the cold just fine since he was covered in fur, he was also pretty sure Ransom would be staying during the winter, and he didn't exactly want to deal with a frozen corpse. Rita would be upset with him anyway.

"I need some help to get some ingredients for potions," Rita explained. "Mistah Ransom already agreed to help, but you're better at finding some of this stuff than I am."

"...Alright," he grumbled, as if it was a chore and he wouldn't have done it anyway. "Need anything specific?"

"Nah, just a bit of everything so I can stay stocked up this winter," she explained. "I'm gonna show Mistah Ransom some basic recipes too for once he's able to head off."

"Yeah, sounds good." He carefully grabbed the basket Rita handed him, and soon he and Ransom were letting her lead the way into the woods.

It was a nice walk, Rita chattering along about books and herbs and all sorts of stuff, with Ransom asking the occasional question as she did. It was pretty sunny, and honestly Steel was pretty sure it was one of the last warm days of autumn.

"How do you manage to navigate this area?" Ransom asked after a while. "I memorized several maps and I can't seem to avoid losing track of where I am."

"You get an instinct for it," Steel piped up. "You grow up running around these woods, and eventually navigating them is second nature. Most of the map makers grew up in the woods too, and they don't seem to realize that not all the landmarks are going to apply to everyone."

Rita nodded, before pointing at a tree. "Like that tree over there. Someone might have specific memories associated with it to help 'em know where they are, but it doesn't look all that different from any other tree. And no one ever puts the castle on the maps anymore, so you can't orient yourself around it."

Ransom nodded. "So using a map is just asking to get lost then, and you need a guide to reliably get anywhere."

"Yeah, or ya gotta stay here long enough to figure it out yourself. It takes years, but you can figure it out if ya try hard enough." Rita shrugged. "It's how my mom managed it. Oh, there's the first patch! Here Mistah Ransom, let me show ya how to harvest fairy root!"

Steel sat down next to the patch, carefully digging his claws into the dirt around the tiny silver flowers as Rita taught Ransom how to dig up the roots without destroying them. No matter how good he had gotten with them, his claws always felt clumsy and unnatural when he did delicate work like this, carefully freeing some of the roots and moving them into the basket without damaging them.

Fairy root was good for the more explicitly magical potions, the ones Rita liked to store for emergencies or for trading for books or magic items. Not so much for her more mundane business, but he knew people thought the flowers were good luck in relationships, romantic or otherwise.

(During the spring, when the tiny silver flowers were everywhere, his friends and his brother used to tie tons of the blooms into his hair, laughing as he grumbled at them. They all did it to each other, and they'd come back to the castle with silver flowers all tangled up in dark hair like jewels and he could almost believe he'd be friends with them forever, like maybe he really was going to be happy.

It didn't last though. Nothing good ever seemed to.)

Steel was drawn out of his work by a tiny silver flower dropped onto his nose, Rita grinning brightly at him.

"You were a thousand miles away there, Mistah Steel," she told him, and there was a little concern in her voice.

"I'm fine," he promised, and she gave a shrug and looked at his basket.

"That should be enough of that," she decided. "C'mon, gotta get some more stuff."

They soon were all on their feet and heading off to find more of what Rita needed. It was mostly Rita leading the way, though occasionally she let Steel take the lead, as he could find more hidden stuff like certain mushrooms and stuff. It was nice that he could use his weird passive magic for something other than just noticing mice burrowing in walls or when something was burning in the kitchen.

Ransom seemed to be getting the hang of it, having a pretty good eye for what Rita could use and what she couldn't, and nimble fingers that were better at most of the work than Steel's clumsy, too big claws. There was a small smile on his face that made him look less sharp and vaguely threatening than he sometimes did, and Steel was suddenly caught on the realization that Ransom was incredibly attractive.

Nope. He was not going to think about that right now. 

"I'm going to go grab some belladonna," he called to Rita, who gave him a thumbs up as she worked on harvesting some mushrooms, and he quickly headed off to where he remembered the belladonna plants being.

He was in the middle of harvesting the berries when he heard horses in the distance, and his blood ran cold. He waited for a moment, hoping for everyone's sake it was just a traveler and not a knight. Then the sound of horses grew closer and it didn't really matter, because either way, two out of three of them were not going to have a good time if they were spotted. And the horses could be heard in the direction he had left from.

"Fuck."

* * *

Rita could hear the horses, and she looked over to Mister Ransom, who had frozen for a moment in his patch before making it to his feet. She grabbed her basket and gestured for him to hide, and he nodded before slipping off into the trees, disappearing in seconds.

The knight entered the clearing only to find a small woman gathering flowers.

"Oh hi!" Rita greeted cheerfully. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it? I imagine it's a good day for a ride through the woods! I wouldn't know, since I don't own a horse. Don't really have a place to keep one and they're a lot of upkeep and I can just walk anywhere I need to go anyway. And they seem expensive, y'know? Would be a waste of money if I were to get a horse if I couldn't take care of it and I didn't even ride it."

Rita continued to chatter about horses, pretending to miss how the knight kept trying to interrupt. She knew how to weaponize her talkativeness, against knights who might hurt her friends and Mister Steel when he was caring too little about his own safety again.

When she finally had to take a breath, the knight took that as his opportunity to ask, "I'm actually on a mission from Baroness Felicia, Miss...?"

Rita recognized the name. Of course she did. She was the mother of the nobleman she had delivered the stolen documents to, the corrupt noble who had a penchant for getting her enemies wrongfully accused and killed. And if this knight was sent by her, then he had to be after Mister Ransom.

"Rita," she answered, doing her best to not let her worry show. "Anyway, I don't know what a Baroness would want with the woods, do you?"

"Yes I do know, she sent me to-"

"Well whatever reason that's for, nothing really happens in these woods, y'know? At least, not enough to need knights to handle. Maybe some wild animals I guess but all ya need is a good torch to scare off the worst of them."

"Yes, well I was sent to-"

"And honestly I feel bad for the wild animals sometimes. They're just trying ta survive like anybody else but they gotta deal with people coming into their homes and then getting mad about them being there even though it was their home first. I guess hunting is okay since ya might get too much deer otherwise and they'd eat too much and then the whole place is messed up because there were too many deer. There's gotta be a balance y'know and if you're not careful you could-"

"Enough!" And then there was a sword pointed at Rita's throat and she realized this was definitely one of the knights Mister Ransom should be worried about. "If you wish to not be charged with treason towards the crown, you will shut up and only speak when I tell you to. Understood?"

"But I was just talking about-"

"Understood?" the knight repeated, the sword's point now just barely touching skin, and she swallowed nervously and gave a tiny nod. "Good. Now that we've reached an agreement-" which was the wrong word, as Rita had definitely not agreed to this, "-have you seen this man before?" He pulled a familiar poster out of his bag, and Rita shook her head.

"I've seen him on the other posters?" she offered hesitantly.

The knight huffed. "Useless old hag." And if she wasn't currently being threatened with a sword she might have complained about that.

As it was, she didn't have time to complain either way, because there was a great loud roar and the sword was away from her throat in seconds as Mister Steel barreled into the clearing, looking absolutely furious.

And the knight shrieked higher pitched than she had when she had read an absolutely horrible, unbelievably terrible twist in one of her now least favorite books, and that at least made her feel better about the whole situation.

The knight attempted to swing his sword at Mister Steel, who caught it in one hand. He let out a weak whimper at that, as Mister Steel threw the sword away before taking a heavy stomp forward, which was enough to make the knight scramble for his horse, climbing on as fast as he could and riding away.

Once he was gone, Mister Steel dropped the big scary monster act and focused his attention on Rita, his voice slightly panicked as he asked, "Are you okay? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"I'm fine," she answered, her voice shaking. Then, a little firmer, she continued, "Oh, but you cut your hand! Why'd ya have to go and catch it by the blade like that?!" She grabbed Mister Steel's bleeding hand and pulled some fabric from her basket to wrap around the wound. "That'll have to be good until we get back to the castle. We should find Mistah Ransom though, he might get lost if we don't hurry and who knows if the knight will try to come back or not and-"

"C'mon Rita, breathe," Mister Steel carefully told her, sounding a little calmer. "Ransom's right over there anyway, he didn't even go too far." He gestured to a tree, and there was no Mister Ransom there as far as she could tell.

"Uh...Mistah Steel?" she asked, concerned, and Mister Steel actually looked where he was pointing and blinked.

"Huh. That's new." Then, a little louder, he added, "I heard about hiding in plain sight but this seems a little ridiculous."

And in a step Mister Ransom was in view, looking just as confused as Rita felt. And then, it hit her.

"Mistah Ransom, you still got the pendant I lent ya?" she asked.

"Yes, I believe I...oh."

Honestly, disappearing into the background was a decent kind of passive magic for a thief.

* * *

The walk back to the castle was a lot quieter than the walk from it. Peter understood, as all three were shaken by the knight encounter. He knew that the knights Baroness Felicia had paid off were corrupt, but his heart had nearly stopped when the knight began threatening Rita. He had been frozen, unsure what to do, when Steel had shown up.

Figuring out his passive magic had been an unintended side-effect of the whole business, and Peter supposed he shouldn't be surprised with what it was.

_When troubles arises, I disappear._

(Mag would have been proud.)

He shifted the sword, which the knight had abandoned and Peter had retrieved just in case, in his grip so he had a free hand to tug to pendant from around his neck and wordlessly pass it to Rita, which earned him a small, nervous smile as she quickly put on over her head. And after a few more minutes of quiet, he finally took a deep breath and spoke.

"I'm sorry. I suppose this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't taken advantage of your hospitality."

Steel scoffed. "Wasn't your fault. Just a shitty knight who doesn't actually know his job is more than kissing some rich noblewoman's ass. He would have done that whether or not you had been there." Then, Steel gave a small laugh. "For a guy who thinks he's high and mighty enough to threaten a civilian, he sure as hell pissed his pants when I showed up."

Rita giggled at that, noting, "The great equalizer, Mistah Steel. The knights around here all think they're great right up until they see an enemy they can't fight."

The two of them laughed at that, before Steel turned his golden eyes towards Peter (and they didn't seem so alarming in that moment, or maybe he was getting used to them). "This isn't even the worst injury I've gotten from a jackass knight before anyway. You didn't drag us into anything we wouldn't have had to deal with anyway."

"Yeah, that injury was more cuz of Mistah Steel being dramatic than anything to do with ya."

"Hey, rude."

"What, it's true! You're the one who decided to catch a sword's blade barehanded! Of course you were gonna get hurt doing that!"

"It got the point across!"

Rita groaned. "I keep tellin' you that ya need to take care of yourself more, and every time I think you're doing better, ya do something like that. Ya can't keep taking advantage of my passive magic to get yourself injured more than ya need to."

Steel let out his own groan at that, and Peter realized this was probably an ongoing argument between the two of them. So he let their bickering drift to the back of his mind as he thought about the encounter.

The knights had probably realized that Peter hadn't left the woods he guessed. If he was lucky, perhaps they would assume that Steel had eaten him. He doubted it would be that simple though, and part of him worried that more knights might enter the woods, either to keep searching for him or to try and eliminate Steel. It would be winter soon though, and that would hopefully ward away knights for long enough for Peter and Steel to be forgotten before they could find them, especially once Baroness Felicia's son shared the information Peter had stolen for him and the intended reform began. He imagined it wouldn't solve the problem entirely, but it would hopefully redirect the focus away from his crimes and Steel's presence in the woods.

He could feel a chilly wind blow through the trees as the sun set in the sky, and he knew it was likely to be a cold winter once it hit.

They arrived back at the castle, and Rita quickly dragged Steel to the living area to treat his cuts. Peter followed along, uncertain of what to do. He could have done more scoping out of the rooms, finding whatever he could take when it was time to leave, but instead he chose to go ahead and start a fire while Rita got to work on treating the cuts on Steel's clawed hand.

By the time Rita had finished cleaning and dressing the wounds, there was a decent fire going that lit up the room in a warm orange glow, and Rita slipped out for a moment with a shout that she was going to grab a book.

"Do...do knights accost you often?" Peter finally asked.

"Yeah," Steel admitted. "They don't usually come looking for me, but I run into them sometimes. Most of my scars are lucky hits by them at one point or another."

Peter blinked. "But...none of them are faded. How recently-"

"That's actually just more curse bullshit," Steel interrupted before he could continue. "My scars don't fade because I look more monstrous if I have them I guess? Most of them are actually pretty old. The one on my face is actually from before the curse." He shrugged.

"That...makes sense?" Peter wasn't actually sure. "So, the effects of the curse are to just make you seem as monstrous as possible. Why is your voice so..."

"Normal?"

"Yes."

"Rita thinks it's supposed to make me more unsettling," Steel noted, shrugging again. "I mean, most people expect a monster to sound like a monster. A monster that sounds like a person though, that's kind of creepy in a way. Makes people more inclined to see me as something bad instead of just like...a wild animal or something?"

"I suppose that makes as much sense as the rest of the curse does," Peter decided with a shrug of his own.

Steel sighed. "Yeah." He grimaced. "Honestly, the appearance thing isn't the worst part. This body is just...too big. It doesn't fit right, even after nearly two decades, and I can never get comfortable with it. So I'm just stuck in the woods in a body that feels wrong and I can't leave because the moment someone sees me, it's going to be angry mobs coming for my head."

Peter couldn't imagine it, being confined to one place for so long. It was hard enough already, to imagine staying for the entirety of the winter in this castle when he usually tended towards the larger cities during the season. To be stuck for years in one place, in a body that wasn't his, sounded like a fate he couldn't even begin to understand. And Steel had been living with it for years.

Before he could say anything, Rita hurried back in and sat herself right next to Steel, holding up a book and saying, "So I thought maybe we could try something cuz you have such a nice voice Mistah Steel, so how about we try it so I'm turning the pages and you read them aloud? I think it'll be a good way to destress too, y'know?"

Steel sighed, and Peter could hear the fondness that told him Steel was going to give in immediately.

"Yeah, okay, whatever." Rita opened the book to the first page, grinning excitedly as Steel rolled his eyes before looking down over and beginning to read aloud.

Rita was right, Peter decided as he sat down on the floor nearby, listening closely as Steel wove a world with his words that had drawn Rita in almost instantly.

He really did have a nice voice.

* * *

"Hey Mistah Steel!" Rita called, and Steel groaned and looked up from what he was doing.

"What is it, Rita?" he asked, slightly annoyed. He had been in the middle of fixing a crossbow that he had found in the storage shed, which could hopefully replace the old one he had broken irreparably. Hunting was a lot easier with a crossbow than with his claws, even if it was kind of a hassle to use.

She smiled brightly, explaining, "Well Mistah Ransom asked if I could make him a passive magic enhancing pendant for him and I told him I could and I wanted to know if I could use your curse as a magic source for it? I can use something else if you want, but using the curse is much faster, y'know?"

Steel sighed, setting aside the almost-finished crossbow before answering, "Okay. Might as well have it be good for something."

"Thank you, Mistah Steel!" She grabbed his arm and tugged him to the living room, sitting him down on the floor while she climbed up onto the couch behind him.

This part wasn't so bad, as much as Steel tended to complain about it. Anything draining magic from his curse had to remain in contact with him after it was prepped, and since he couldn't wear necklaces due to being larger than a human person in pretty much every way, Rita had instead decided to the best way to enchant them was to braid them into his mane. Which was nice, honestly. Rita was always careful not to tug too hard on the fur or hair or whatever, and the jewelry in his hair was the closest thing to pretty he could actually feel anymore.

"So, what pendant is going to be Ransom's?" Steel asked out of curiosity.

Rita laughed. "Oh, I found the perfect one!" She held out a silver dagger pendant and Steel sighed.

"Of course."

"Well," she said, her tone humorous, "he _did_ pull a knife on you."

"Oh _now_ you remember that."

Rita laughed again, her voice bright and giggly, and Steel couldn't help the amused huff that he gave at that, because Rita's laughter was the best and worse kind of contagious and he couldn't help it, could he? That was just how Rita was.

He could feel the tiny, painless tugs as she braided the dagger pendant into his mane, and he closed his eyes for a moment and let the gentle fingers that were so at odds with who Rita was as a person lull him into what was probably a false sense of security, even if he was too tired to think on it much. He rarely slept through the night, either woken up by nightmares he couldn't remember or dreams with a familiar face that hurt like a sword through his chest.

He was proven right though, when she eventually asked, "Hey, Mistah Steel?"

"Hmm?" he asked, doing his best not to shake his head awake.

"So I wanted to try enchanting something else," she explained. "And if it works it'll be really cool?"

He sighed. He was probably going to be strapped to something weird now, but honestly he was used to entertaining Rita's whims, and maybe a small part of him was curious to see where this went.

"Alright, what is it?"

* * *

"Ah, Steel, I was wondering if..." Peter blinked as he looked at his host, whose back was turned to him as he worked on dinner. "Steel, why are you wearing a sword on your back?"

"Because Rita wanted to make an enchanted sword."

"...I see."

Steel looked at him. "It has to be in contact with me to drain magic. Rita modified this sheath she found in a closet so I could wear it and keep part of the sword touching me, but I can't take it off until it's done."

Peter huffed out a laugh. "I suppose it's just strange."

"Yeah, for me too. I'm more of an archer myself."

He...didn't know if that was a joke...

"Well anyway, I was wondering if you knew where Rita was? I wanted to ask about something I read in one of her books, but I can't find her anywhere."

"Oh yeah, she said she was going to pick up a book from the bookstore in the village," Steel answered. "Some novel in some romantic series she likes. I lost track of the plot like ages ago, but apparently it involves pirates?"

"Interesting." Peter watched as Steel cut vegetables expertly, reminded, in that moment, of his own incompetence in the kitchen.

"Might as well ask me what you're wondering about, I've been the sounding board to most of Rita's curse talk for years now. I picked up some stuff."

"I was just curious about this one aspect of fairy curses," Peter explained, "since that is one of the possibilities. Rita mentioned that while fairies can afford to keep replenishing magic on a curse, they usually don't bother, correct?"

"Yep," Steel answered. "The thing about the fae is they very rarely give enough of a shit about humans to do that unless you really insult them, and even then they don't care much to keep throwing magic on it if they have a choice."

Peter nodded. "Yes, well it's the choice aspect that I was curious about. The book mentioned that they might be compelled to keep feeding a curse energy, but I can't imagine how that would work."

Steel gave a wry smile that was strange on his face. "Oh yeah, sometimes fae can be compelled to act in certain ways, depending on deals or promises they made or roles they were given. They can usually twist it in their favor, following the letter of what they have to do, but when it comes to curses that means they sometimes don't have a choice whether to top off the magic of one or not. Sucks to be them. Dragons don't have that problem, and so they won't usually do curses like that unless you manage a major heist of their hoard and somehow make it out alive. Something to keep in mind, huh Ransom?"

He gave Peter a knowing look, and Peter laughed awkwardly. He had never had an encounter with a dragon, but he had a feeling that he would be lucky to get away with a single ring.

"You mentioned roles?" he asked, deciding to change the subject, and Steel laughed, a touch bitterly.

"Yeah, it's a complicated fae thing, but that's where stuff like fairy godmothers come from," he answered. "Don't really think it applies in this case, but what do I know? I'm just the poor schmuck that got dragged into this. My guess is if this," he gestured to himself, "was because of a fairy, she was looking to start a fight and I was someone willing to rise to the bait. Or maybe she was a dragon and my however many great grandfather stole some gold from her and she wanted revenge. Or maybe she was something else and she just wanted to. The motive doesn't really matter at this point, does it?"

That was fair, really. Still, Peter didn't really want to leave it there. He was not even close to naive enough to think people couldn't be cruel without a reason, but to put a continuous effort into maintaining this curse that seemed, in no way, to benefit the caster...there had to a reason behind that.

* * *

Rita had gotten pretty good at recognizing when the weather was going to turn, and so as the leaves shifted colors and there were more chilly days than not, she set to work making and stockpiling remedies and potions.

She took her work over to the castle mostly, often working in the kitchen while Mister Ransom read through the books on curses and asked her questions and Mister Steel cooked or worked on something and complained about Mister Ransom sitting on the counter. It was a lot of fun, honestly, and it allowed her to spend more time with Mister Steel before the winter snowstorms forced her to hold off on visits.

(That was another good thing about Mister Ransom staying, she decided. Mister Steel didn't do good alone, and winter always made his overall mental state worse. Having someone around full time would hopefully help.)

"It's your favorite food but you don't even know what it's called?" Mister Steel griped, looking through ingredients with a frustrated expression. He had already given up on trying to get Mister Ransom off the counter today.

"It has been a long time I'm afraid." Mister Ransom answered, slightly defensively. "I know it included onions and peppers in it-"

"You're lucky Rita made me start that garden ages ago."

"-and there were spices."

There was silence for a moment as Mister Steel turned and gave Mister Ransom the flattest look she had ever seen on his face. It was impressive, and she did her best to bite back her giggles as she crushed some herbs with a mortar and pestle.

"Spices," Mister Steel repeated, his tone incredibly blank. "Any idea what kind?"

Mister Ransom's sheepish expression was answer enough.

"Damn it, Ransom," Mister Steel muttered, looking like he wanted to smack his head against the counter even if it would require basically sitting on the floor to do so, and Rita did laugh at that. "Oh don't you start Rita. You're the one who told me your favorite dessert flavor is _salmon_." The disgust in his voice at that just made Rita laugh harder and caused Mister Ransom to snicker.

It was nice. Rita had had a lot of nice moments with Mister Steel, moments that made her even more determined to find someway to break the curse, because that unspoken condition had made it so she wasn't enough to do it. Because she did love Mister Steel, loved him enough to spend a decade and a half working to break a curse he had given up on long before she had come along, and yet somehow it wasn't enough. Because it wasn't romantic, or she wasn't doing right, or something. And one thing Rita had in common with Mister Steel was that she hated not knowing.

The new book had been good, taught her some new stuff, but it hadn't given her any new ideas for breaking the curse. Mister Ransom had pointed out some interesting ideas, but ultimately that wasn't enough to determine anything new. Rita could publish her own book on curses at this point, but she hadn't found any new way to break them.

She didn't say anything to Mister Steel. He had given up years ago, but she knew if she said anything, he'd try to talk her into stopping again. And she wouldn't.

Mister Steel was her best friend and she wouldn't give up on helping him.

* * *

 _There was blood everywhere, blood on his arms and clothes and under his fingernails and coating the knife in his shaking hands and smeared where the bloody hand had reached up to stroke his face and Mag said his name but he couldn't hear, couldn't hear anything over the roaring in his ears_ and then his eyes blinked open and he could almost imagine there was still blood on his hands when he shakily looked at them.

He hadn't had that nightmare in a long time.

He shouldn't have used Peter Ransom. Using a name from playing father and son with the man he killed had been a mistake. It was too close to Peter Nureyev, too close to too many clawing emotions he couldn't handle in that moment.

File them away, deal with them later. He needed to think about something else, anything else.

So he stood up, grabbing a candle stick and silently lighting the candle before stepping out into the hallway, allowing himself to drift into the background.

It wouldn't work if Steel was awake. He just had to hope that his host was fast asleep.

He was about to open the door to one of the rooms that had been declared off-limits when he heard a distant, sharp thwack. Then another one.

He looked at the door for a moment, then removed his hand from the knob and chose instead to follow the noise.

It was cold outside, cold enough for his breath to fog up when he exhaled, and he found Steel facing away from him, shooting a crossbow into a target wordlessly.

Steel didn't look at him, just shot another bolt from his crossbow and greeted him with a gruff "Ransom."

He stiffened slightly at the name, and Steel paused in the middle of reloading the crossbow, finally looking at him. Those golden eyes seemed to glow in the dark, and it would have been unnerving if he hadn't become used to them by now.

"Not Ransom then," Steel observed quietly, and there was no judgement in his voice. "Peter?"

He grimaced at that. No, being called Peter by someone else was too strange. And he didn't want to be Peter Ransom or Peter Nureyev in that moment. He wanted to be someone who could close his eyes and not see blood on his hands and the corpse of a man he had played family with so many times it had stopped feeling fake.

"Alright, fair enough," Steel answered with a shrug, turning back to the target. He fired one last bolt into it, hitting it precisely in the center. Then he stood up and said, "C'mon, you're going to freeze if we stay out here much longer."

And so, they walked back into the castle together, Steel stowing the crossbow away somewhere before leading the way to the kitchen and rummaging through some food items.

He watched, unsure what to do, until Steel looked up at him and asked, "Are you going to sit on the counter or what?" And he let out a sound that might have been laughter as he did just that.

As Steel set to work at the stove, the silence sat heavy between them. He did his best to focus on Steel's claws and the way he hummed thoughtfully to himself as he worked, to keep memory of Mag's voice from breaking him in that moment.

Normally he would be staying at an inn or in a bar and he'd task himself with stealing something difficult, force his brain to recalibrate on the present and push the memories back. Dive into his latest persona and let himself believe the lie as much as he could. But there was, oddly enough, not a lot to steal in this castle, nothing that was much of a challenge or he hadn't been told he could take. And he had made a mistake and chosen an alias who he couldn't separate from those memories, no matter how much he wanted to. And if he tried to be anyone else in that moment, that would just create questions he was not sure he could answer.

A mug was shoved into his hands, and he blinked to see Steel holding another one carefully in his claws, giving him an expectant look. And he took a drink and the rich chocolate swept the bad taste out of his mouth.

"Thank you," he spoke, and he didn't like how his voice seemed weaker in that moment, too vulnerable.

"No problem," Steel answered with a shrug. "No offense, but you kind of look like shit."

He grimaced at that. "It was simply a nightmare. I will be over it soon enough."

Steel frowned at him, before sighing. "Rita is so much better at this than I am. Look...how about you go steal a book from Rita's room? Whatever looks interesting. If you can turn the pages, I'll read it out loud."

"...Really?"

"I'm not going to be getting anymore sleep tonight either way. It's your choice though. We don't have to."

He stared at the mug in his hands, before answering, "Actually...I think I would like that."

Retrieving the book was easy, as Rita was at home that night and she didn't even lock her room, and by the time he arrived in the main living area, Steel had already started a fire and was seated on the floor by the couch. 

"What did you find?"

He held up the book, answering, "I'm not quite sure, actually. I think it has to do with vampires?"

Steel snorted. "Seems mindless enough."

He sat next to Steel, opening up the book between them to the first chapter. And after a moment, Steel began to read.

And, eventually, Peter Nureyev could breathe again.

* * *

Mick could see the snow coming down outside his window and had a feeling it was going to be a long winter.

Of course, his feelings, according to most people, weren't usually correct. Unless he felt like someone was lying, because he could always tell when someone was. Rita had called it passive magic or whatever. He didn't really get it, but he listened, just like he listened when she told him that no one else was supposed to know she was a witch.

Either way, the first snow storm of the year felt early to him, and he was sure that meant that if spring wasn't early then winter was going to be longer than usual. He was pretty sure that was how it worked. He didn't share his thought process with most people though. They rarely ever got it. Sometimes he didn't get it much either and then everyone was confused.

So instead he focused on books, because that at least was something he liked to focus on.

No one had really understood why he liked them all that much. He wasn't that smart, not like Rita who might get confused about things but also could do magic and create remedies for pretty much anything, and yeah, books seemed like a smart people thing. But Mick liked them because there was a sense of accomplishment there. He had learned to read later than most kids, but he had only good memories of learning. And reading had become something he appreciated as a result, a reminder of good times.

Funny, that he'd made his living out of something that only two people in the world actually understood his affection for.

One person. Right.

Even funnier, it was nearly twenty years, and he still tended to forget.

He was just setting to work shelving the last of the new books he was probably going to have for a while when there was a knock at the door. Which was surprising, what with the snow storm and all, but not as surprising as opening the door and seeing a very familiar woman that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Sasha?" Mick asked, blinking at the sight of her. Then he remembered that yeah, there was a snow storm, and he quickly stepped out of the way so she could enter.

They didn't talk much as Mick got them both situated in the part of the store he lived in, near the stove so Sasha could warm up. And, once that was handled, he finally spoke up.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you," he began, because he was always happy to see Sasha, she was one of his best friends and had been for a long time, even if he wasn't sure it was mutual anymore after all these years, "but what are you doing back here? You hate it here."

"No I don't," Sasha assured him, and it was a lie but Mick didn't call it out.

He knew that, any other time, she'd probably be encouraging him to move the bookstore to a new place far from the woods, but Mick _didn't_ hate it here, the woods were just as much home as the store, and Rita would probably revolt if the only bookseller in the area left. But Sasha wasn't the kind of person to do anything face-to-face that she could handle with a strongly worded letter, using vocabulary that he'd occasionally had to look up in a dictionary, so if she was here, then it was probably something she had to do in person, and she could try to goad him into moving perfectly fine in letter form.

"So, why are you here then?"

Sasha took a deep breath, before answering, "There were sightings, Mick, of a monster in the woods. A golden eyed monster."

"...Oh."

She nodded. "Apparently these sightings have been going back years, but I've only managed to learn about them now due to a bribery scandal. Most of the knights who encountered it are...proud."

Which was Sasha-speak for "they'd probably suck their own dicks if they could pull their heads out of their asses long enough to do it." Mick was fluent in Sasha-speak.

"One of the knights encountered the monster recently, recently enough for there to be concerns about travelers or villagers being attacked. Unfortunately, due to the scandal, there are no other knights familiar with the area who can be trusted. So I volunteered to get rid of it myself. The snow storm hit before I could search the woods though, so I came to ask if it was possible to stay with you until it was over."

Mick smiled, though he knew it was weaker than it'd have normally been. "Yeah, of course."

"Thank you, Mick."

They sat there in silence for a bit, the space feeling so much bigger than it actually was. And he knew things were different, that things were never going to be as easy as they had felt when they were kids, but he still missed it. It was nostalgia colored even brighter in contrast to the grief that hadn't ever really gone away.

"So...this is about revenge then?" Mick asked.

Sasha scoffed. "Of course not. It's my duty as a knight to kill it before it kills someone else. I am simply the only person available to do the job, nothing more."

"Right...makes sense."

And Mick knew it was a lie. He probably would have known without his weird magic thing Rita told him about. He knew Sasha like he knew the woods, like he knew his nose that was always in his field of vision, like he knew that all his books were were just a weak attempt to connect with a part of his past that was gone, like he knew grief. And Sasha was lying when she claimed that her only reason for going after the monster was because it was her job.

Sasha Wire had tried at it, but she had never really managed to stop feeling. She pushed her emotions back and tried to justify most of what she did as logically as possible, but Mick had seen her at her best and her worst and knew she was just as messed up emotionally as anybody else.

But he let her pretend anyway. It made her feel better when she thought he bought it.

* * *

The hunters were holed up in an inn for the night, the smiling one watching out the window.

"What a blizzard," he remarked cheerfully. "It looks like we'll be here for a while."

The angry one focused on cleaning the blood from her sword, not saying a word.

"Admittedly there is very little drama in this," the smiling one continued, tapping his fingers on the window sill. "Very few monsters to kill in an inn, don't you agree? I thought our ultimate quest would be a lot more entertaining."

"This isn't some story," the angry one spoke up. "This is us finally doing what we should have done years ago."

"I know that," he reminded her. "You're not the only one who has been wanting this for a long time. The only difference is that I can have fun while doing it." He sighed sadly. "After so many years, you and your darling brother will finally take on the beast that started us on our path. And once the monster is dead, maybe we'll finally know peace."

"The innkeeper is a vampire."

He jumped to attention. "Really?" There was excitement in his voice at that.

"Yep." She had been at this for years, and she recognized the signs. "We're the only guests here and I'm pretty sure he intends to drink from us tonight. Go nuts."

"Oh thank you thank you!" He jumped to his feet, rummaging through his bag. "How should I do this? Fire is dramatic-"

"You aren't setting the inn on fire in the middle of a blizzard."

He pouted. "Oh you're no fun. Fine, beheading then." He pulled an axe from their equipment and headed for the door.

"Call if you need help."

"Oh don't worry, I won't."

The door shut behind him, and she looked at the sword in her hands. 

Even if it took them all winter to get there, she would make sure that son of a bitch died.

* * *

Steel's brain needed to get with the goddamn program already, instead of stuttering and faltering at the worst point because Peter Ransom, or whatever his name was, was _asleep_ and _leaning on him_.

And yeah, making the late night reading more than just a one time thing was on him. He needed to do something to not think about most things and sleep had proved the opposite of helpful there, and Ransom tended to also be happy to oblige when both of them were still awake after too long. Still, they usually gave up when one of them got tired. He had actively been trying to avoid this situation.

He couldn't move. No, Ransom was leaning all of his weight on Steel's side, meaning if he didn't wake up just from Steel trying to move then he would when he hit the ground, and Steel didn't want to pick him up and move him because he imagined waking up to a huge hulking monster carrying you would not be fun. He also couldn't really bring himself to wake him, since the whole reason they were doing this was because they couldn't sleep.

So Steel sat there, reminding himself that he needed to breathe and also function like a person, or whatever the hell he was at this point.

He could never tell Rita about this.

He allowed himself to glance over at Ransom, and yeah, _fuck_. He knew Ransom was attractive, in the same way he knew Rita was very good at magic and that his birthday was on Christmas Eve. But like both of those facts, it was much more obvious and all consuming when it was too close for him to think about much else.

And Ransom wore cologne, he had known that, but the smell was much more overwhelming up close.

It was hard to think, with his brain running on a chorus of "hot boy very attractive man very close good smell haven't been around attractive people not trying to kill me in two decades except for Rita and that's weird because _Rita_ why did you do this to yourself Rita can _never know_ ," that was stampeding over any actual functioning person thoughts.

Ransom shifted slightly, causing Steel to stop breathing for a moment, before relaxing against Steel's side, somehow even closer.

 _Fuck_.

Realizing he was trapped, Steel very carefully removed the book from Ransom's hands, setting it back on the couch. Then he tried to think about other things.

...Nope. His brain had just given up.

He sighed. The isolation really had to be getting to him, if his brain was fixating on the first non-murderous attractive man he had met in a while. Yes, that was the only reason for this. Absolutely no other reason.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the smell of Ransom's cologne filling his head, and he thanked all that was holy that Rita was not going to show up and see this with all the snow.

Damn, he was tired. Opening his eyes was too much effort, so he just kept them closed and the exhaustion helped slow his heart down and distract him from the man that was still sleeping beside him.

When he opened his eyes again, his back was sore and Ransom and the book were gone.

He was never telling Rita about this.

* * *

"Absolutely not," Sasha insisted.

Mick ignored her, shutting and locking the door behind him. Rita was the only customer he'd had any chance of having today anyway, since she was the only one the snow wouldn't dissuade.

"Mick," Sasha spoke up, clearly not giving up without a fight. "This is too dangerous. I am not letting you go with me."

"Who said anything about letting me?" he asked. "I live here, I go in the woods often enough, and you can't stop me."

" _Mick_."

And he looked her right in the eyes and told her, "I'm not letting you go by yourself."

"I am a knight of the realm and you are the owner of a bookstore," she argued. "I can handle myself and every moment you are there with me is a moment you risk getting killed."

He sighed. "Sasha...I need this, okay? I need to be there. Because if you beat it then it'll be over and I don't have to worry about it anymore, and if you don't then at least I can actually be there and do something."

 _Unlike last time_ , he didn't say, but it didn't matter. She picked up on it well enough.

Sasha gave him a fierce glare, but Mick couldn't be intimidated by her, not after all these years. And so, she reached into her bag and handed him a sheathed dagger.

"If it all goes well, you won't need it," she told him. "Let's go."

* * *

"Ransom, I'm going hunting," Steel called, slinging the crossbow over his shoulder. "You coming?"

"I was actually going to look at more of Rita's books," Peter answered, looking up at Steel from the book in his lap for a moment. "Besides, I imagine my presence would be more of a hindrance than anything."

Neither of them mentioned falling asleep last night. There was absolutely nothing to mention after all, Peter had decided, and he would be offended by anyone suggesting otherwise. And if Steel wasn't going to mention it, then that simply confirmed it.

(He wasn't sure why it mattered at all, except that it did despite him not wanting it to.)

"Fair enough." Steel gave him a wave before heading out the door, and Peter stared at the page for a bit longer before groaning.

He'd get onto himself for stumbling due to a pretty face, but it wasn't even a face, it was a _voice_. A pretty voice and nothing more because the owner of said voice was a large, incredibly menacing monster.

A monster who cooked food for him and missed reading books normally and had fond smiles for his best friend and no no no no, he was not doing that.

Clearly reading wasn't going to distract him, so he set the book aside and went to find one of the entrances to the secret passages. He had been intending to map them out after all, but due to spending time researching with Rita, among other things, it had fallen out of priority. But now it was at least something that would keep his mind off of his idiotic heart that was too vulnerable at the moment.

File it away. Focus on the present.

The passages were dusty, as to be expected. He could still see the messages carved into wood beams, childish jokes and such that made him wonder. He found those marks made navigation easier, as they were almost always near an entrance.

He wondered about the children that had carved them. Had they died long before Steel had come along or were they this young when he scared the remnants of the residents away.

He was examining a carving, a message that read "Annie Wire is the coolest" when he heard a noise. Like shifting wood in the distance.

"Are these passages even still safe?" a woman's voice asked, and Peter felt a stab of panic at the realization that someone had gotten into the castle, someone who wasn't supposed to be there.

"Don't worry, they were already old as hell last time we were here," a man's voice assured her, and Peter could hear creaking wood.

He rummaged in his pockets, pulling a dagger pendant from one of them and pulling the chain over his head. Rita had promised it would be just as effective as her's.

_When trouble arises, I disappear._

And this time, he could feel it, could feel himself blend into the shadows just as two figures appeared around the corner.

"Oh hey, I remember this!" the man called excitedly, approaching the carving Peter had just been looking at. "You remember, Sasha?"

"Of course," the woman, Sasha apparently, answered. Peter could see the standard issue sword hanging at her hip and his blood ran cold. A knight. Of course. "She was very proud of herself for that one."

The man laughed. "Yeah, none of us expected her to actually figure it out without our help. But that's what we got, underestimating one of the Wires."

Sasha snorted at that. "Which one of us carved this one?"

He frowned for a moment. "Well we're still on the first floor, so not me. Mine's up by the towers. And you carved it by the entrance near the kitchens, so this one must be..." He went quiet after that.

"...Let's just go, Mick," she decided. "How well do you remember these passages anyway?"

"Well I remember this one route pretty well? C'mon, let the king of the tunnels lead the way!" And with that, the man continued down, Sasha following after him. And Peter silently followed them, not wanting to lose them in the building. If Steel returned before these two were gone, then he'd be in danger.

"And...yep, here we are!" The man, Mick, slid open an entrance and gestured into a room that Ransom didn't recognize.

"...Mick?" Sasha asked, her voice a very intentional calm.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you have the route to Benzaiten's room memorized still?"

Mick laughed a bit awkwardly. "Oh yeah, we'd just hang out a lot, y'know?"

"Oh really?" Sasha asked, sounding amused.

"Yep."

"Just the two of you?"

"Oh my god."

"Alone?"

Mick shoved Sasha's shoulder, laughing out of embarrassment as he stepped into the room. "Now you remember to have fun and it's at my expense. Pretty cold, Sasha."

She shoved him back as she followed him out. "I'm not the one who was sneaking around with one of my best friends behind his brother's back."

"We weren't...how do you know he didn't know?"

"Because he would have complained about it all the time. That was just how he was. And I would've been the one to hear it."

Both of them sighed at that.

"I miss them," Mick said, and Peter slipped into the room as the two of them looked around.

Both of them were around his age, maybe a few years older. And it was easy to tell that they were partially responsible for the carvings in the passages. But why had they come here? And how was he going to get them out before Steel returned?

"It's weird," Mick spoke up again. "It's like nothing's been touched at all."

Sasha attempted to turn the knob, before noting, "It's locked. He must have locked this room after what happened to Ben." She sighed. "He never was very good at dealing with his problems."

"Just blaming himself for everyone else's," Mick piped up, rooting through the wardrobe full of clothes that looked like they had been untouched for years. "And...yep, it's still here!" He pulled a panel of wood up from the bottom of the wardrobe and pulled a key out, tossing it to Sasha, who caught it neatly. "Their mom used to lock them in their rooms, remember? Ben had that as a back-up in case she found out about the passages and blocked them."

"Smart," Sasha noted, putting the key in the lock and turning it, opening the door into the hallway. Only to find an incredibly tall, incredibly angry Steel behind it.

"Oh shit," Mick muttered.

"Where the hell did you people come from?" Steel asked.

Instead of replying, Sasha pulled her sword from her sheath and moved forward to strike, and Steel jumped back to avoid the blade.

"Oh now they send one of the good knights," Steel complained, but Sasha didn't say anything, just threw herself into her attacks as Steel stumbled out of the way, and both of them disappeared down the hall.

Peter abandoned the shadows and ran after them, ignoring the shocked cry from Mick.

Sasha seemed to fully intend to kill Steel, and Peter couldn't let that happen.

* * *

Mick, admittedly, usually didn't know what was going on, but right now he was definitely lost.

For one, the super scary monster had talked. Like, with words. In fact, it was still talking even as Sasha was going after it with a vengeance. And something about its voice seemed weirdly familiar. And it wasn't fighting back.

For another, where the hell had the other guy come from? He was trying, and ultimately failing, to slow down Sasha. Mick guessed he was less of an upfront fighter and more of a strike from the shadows kind of guy, but Sasha wasn't giving him much of an opening for a sneak attack. And he was trying to help the monster, which was also confusing.

Trying to keep track of the fight was difficult. Sasha fought like some kind of avenging angel, to the point where it almost felt...unfair. The guy kept trying to stop her, distract her, just slow her down, but eventually she threw him against a table roughly, hard enough to break it beneath him, and he didn't stand back up, either unconscious or too tired and/or sore to keep fighting. And the monster only hit her once, leaving claw marks on her arm and nothing else.

"Honestly, not how I expected to go," the monster joked.

"Stop talking," Sasha ordered.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure that would kill me."

Mick knew that voice from somewhere. He couldn't remember where, but he knew it.

Sasha's sword bit into the monster's side, and she knocked it down to the ground, pointing the tip of her blade at his throat.

"I'd ask if you let me have my last words, but I'm guessing you'd prefer it if I shut up."

Oh. _Oh_.

Sasha held up the sword to bury it in the beast's chest and Mick knew that voice, knew who it belonged to, and it didn't make since but it had to be-

"Jay?" he asked, and everything stopped.

Then the monster looked at him with those creepy golden eyes and blinked. "Wait...Mick?!"

"Holy shit," Mick muttered, dazed. "Is that really you, Jay?"

Sasha's sword was back at the monster's throat, and she demanded, "Tell me something only he would know."

"...Sasha?" the monster asked.

" _Tell me_."

The monster closed his eyes. "I tried to help you and Annie learn ballroom dancing while Ben taught Mick. You both were so bad at it that Annie insisted that between the two of you there were two functioning pairs of feet. Mick gloated for weeks because we had finally found something you weren't good at."

There was silence, before Sasha's sword clattered to the ground. And, for the first time since they were kids, Sasha's voice shook.

"Juno?"

And the monster (it was Juno it was Jay it was his best friend and holy shit it shouldn't be real but it was) gave a weak smile.

"Hey Sash. Should have known you'd be the only competent knight."


	2. Chapter 2

Rita was disappointed that the bookstore was closed, but she simply shrugged off her disappointment and instead headed for the woods. She had a book that she was going to look through again, focusing on fairy roles and compulsions (Mister Ransom's theory that it was a compulsion forcing the curse to be maintained was a good one and she decided it was a good idea to look into it), and she thought she might as well enjoy the company at the castle.

"Hey Mistah Steel!" she called as she entered. "I got some stuff I wanted to..." She trailed off as she saw the sight in the main living area.

On the floor was Mister Steel, looking exhausted and injured, and Mister Ransom was trying to patch up a wound on his side. And on the couch was a lady holding an injured arm close to her body and-

"Rita?!" Mister Mercury shouted. "What are you doing here?!"

"Me?! What about you?!"

"Rita, could you please..." Mister Ransom interrupted, gesturing to Mister Steel, and Rita quickly got serious.

"Mistah Ransom, pass me your pendant?" Rita asked, walking over to take over for him. He nodded, passing the pendant to her, and she sliped the chain over her neck and let it rest near the rose quartz apple. She quickly set to work on Mister Steel's side, and she looked up and asked, "What happened?"

Mister Steel huffed out a painful laugh. "A nice fun case of identity confusion, really."

"This isn't funny," the woman began, her voice stern. "I could have killed you Juno."

"Yeah, well you didn't. So it's fine. I forgive you or whatever. And since you're probably going to have a nice scar on your arm from the experience, I think we're even now."

"Juno," the woman spoke up, but Mister Mercury held up a hand like he wanted to ask a question and then didn't wait for anyone to tell him to speak.

"Hi, I'm still confused about why Rita is here," he began, gesturing to Rita. He glanced at her and asked, "Is it because of the..." He hesitated, glanced at the woman beside him, then held up his hand and wiggled his fingers like Rita would whenever she wanted to show her magic.

"Very subtle, Mick," Mister Steel remarked, in the same way he liked to talk to Rita when he was pretending to be exasperated and didn't want her to realize that he didn't actually mind. "Rita, do you want to give them the spiel or not?" He gave her a look that she recognized as him telling her she didn't have to if she didn't want to.

She gave him a smile at that. Mister Steel was bad at pretending he didn't care.

"Well, Mistah Mercury already knows, but I'm a witch," Rita explained, and the woman blinked as Rita repeated the gesture Mister Mercury had made, this time with sparkles and all. "I've been working on breaking Mistah Steel's curse, and Mistah Ransom is my research partner." She could see Mister Ransom startle a bit at that, but ignored it. She had seen the sword set beside the lady and the wary looks she and Mister Mercury kept giving him, and she knew it was better to present an excuse to leave him be now than to risk him getting arrested once this was handled.

She finished treating Mister Steel and turned to the woman, gesturing for her to hold out her arm. The woman hesitated, before reluctantly complying. 

"I know you're a big fancy knight Miss..."

"Wire. Sasha Wire."

Rita smiled brightly. "Nice to meet ya, Miss Wire. Anyway, I know you gotta job to do and that no one really trusts witches all that much, but I promise that I'm doing everything I can to help Mistah Steel, and that Mistah Ransom is helping me as much as he can. So...would you be willing to let this slide?"

Miss Wire looked at Rita, as if unsure whether to trust her. Then she glanced at Mister Mercury, who nodded confidently, before sighing.

"Considering that I wasn't actually assigned to take this job, I suppose I have no moral legs to stand on."

"Wait, what?" Mister Steel asked, at the same time as Mister Mercury cried out, "I knew it!"

Miss Wire blinked, her head whirling around to look at Mister Mercury. "You knew?!"

"I always know when you're lying, Sasha," he answered, a grin on his face. "You know, you're not as good at pretending you don't care as you think. You're almost as bad at it as Jay is."

"Hey."

"Also that's my passing magic? Did I say that right?" He looked at Rita for confirmation, and she shook her head. "Well, whatever it is, I knew you were lying about it. But it made you feel better to think I believed you, so I just let it slide."

There was silence for a moment, before Mister Steel asked, "You mean to tell me you've been a goddamn lie detector this entire time, and you still went along with our shit when we thought you were too gullible to realize we were lying our asses off? What the fuck, Mercury?"

"Well it was more fun that way!"

Rita laughed at the scene, finishing treating Miss Wire's arm.

Juno. That was his first name. She was glad that she finally knew it, even if she was still going to call him Mister Steel. It felt important to know that. Like she had found a piece of him that she hadn't been able to for reasons beyond either of their control.

* * *

He heard the door open, and he looked up to see Ransom standing there, blinking in surprise at the sight of him.

He couldn't really find it in him to get mad. Ransom had already been in the room once that day, thanks to Mick and Sasha. There was really no point in trying to keep him out anymore. Besides, he had gotten injured trying to help.

"Steel," Ransom began, then paused, silently correcting himself before saying, "Juno."

He took a shuddering breath at that. Something about the way Ransom said his name in that moment seemed to make it harder to breathe normally, and fuck, why couldn't his brain cooperate for once?

"Hey Ransom," he began, and he gestured for Ransom to sit next to him, on the floor at the end of the bed. And Ransom sat there, not saying a word. So Juno finally asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am," he answered calmly, and Juno wished he had Mick's apparent lie-detecting abilities in that moment, just to be sure. "Rita wearing both pendants certainly helped. My ribs stopped hurting not long after that."

He nodded. "Okay...thanks, by the way. For the help earlier."

Ransom sighed. "Of course." He then looked around the room, before asking, "Who was he?"

And Juno didn't want to answer and he did want to answer and he wanted to lock it all away and not care and he wanted to unload twenty years of grief because there was nothing else he could do with that weight except leave it there and it was crushing him to death. And he wasn't sure he could find a middle ground between nothing and everything, a healthy middle ground that wouldn't crush Ransom instantly under the weight of the mess that was Juno Steel.

"My brother," he finally answered.

"I...I see." Ransom sat there in silence for a moment, as if trying to decide what to say. "What...what happened to him?"

(Juno couldn't forget it, couldn't forget finding him there, dead on the ground, and _her_ there over his body, insisting that it was supposed to be Juno. It was supposed to be Juno and instead it had been Ben, and when she lifted the sword again he didn't give her the chance to hit him.)

"Our mom killed him," he answered simply, except there was nothing simple about it. It would never be simple, there would always be complicated bullshit involved, because Duchess Sarah Steel had been a nightmare for most of what Juno could remember and then she had been a murderer and dead in quick succession. "We were twins. She thought he was me. And when I showed up and found them, he was already dead and she tried to kill me too. And I killed her first."

And he didn't say that part of him regretted not just letting her do it.

Ransom took a shallow breath at that, and Juno wondered if he had reached a limit that he hadn't known about, that this was going to be what made Ransom decide that he wasn't worth the effort anymore.

Instead though, Ransom reached a hand out and placed it on top of Juno's clawed one, and this contact felt somehow more intimate than when Ransom fell asleep against his side, maybe because of the intention behind it or because of the conversation.

"What was he like?" he asked, and Juno felt a small smile reach his face.

"He was a smug jackass sometimes," he began, and Ransom let out a small laugh at that. "But he was good, in a way I don't think I could ever manage. He tried to see the best in people...even people like our mom, when I had already given up on her. I tried to protect him from her, because I didn't want her to take that away from him. But...but it didn't matter much in the end, I guess."

There was silence for a moment, then Ransom noted, "You know, I think I like the name Juno. It fits you better than simply calling you your last name."

The subject change was appreciated, and Juno sighed with relief. "Thanks, Ransom."

"...It's Nureyev."

Juno blinked, looking down over at the man beside him with a surprised look. "What?"

"My name is Peter Nureyev," ~~Ransom~~ Nureyev explained. "I would appreciate it if we kept that between us, of course. But...I'd like someone to know."

"...Okay," he answered. "Thanks, Nureyev."

The two of them sat there for a long time, letting the silence sit comfortably, and Juno looked around at the room that had once been his brother's and his chest ached, but it wasn't so overpowering in that moment, like he might actually be able to keep breathing.

* * *

Peter was heading to the kitchen the next morning when he heard quiet conversation.

"I actually guessed, that was the case." Rita's voice was quiet, and strangely serious.

"Really?" And there was Juno's, mildly surprised.

"Yeah. It was kinda...the way you acted sometimes. And you know how passive magic works, based on what you really need or want. The fact that yours was about knowing what was happening around you, it made me think...you had to be careful a lot when you were growing up, didn't you?"

"...Yeah." There was a shaky, bitter laugh. "It didn't always help, but I guess it makes sense, doesn't it?"

Peter knew he was intruding, and he turned to walk away just as Rita spoke again.

"You know, I'm always here if ya need me, okay? And you can take as long as ya need and everything, but I'm gonna stick around, okay? I'm not going anywhere and so if ya need ta talk or you need me ta talk to fill empty places or anything, I'm here, okay?"

"...Thanks, Rita."

He could hear the smile in her voice as she answered, "Of course, Mistah Steel. We take care of each other, okay?" Then, a little hesitantly, she asked, "Do ya mind if I hug you, or would you rather I not?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Peter stood there for a moment, before turning and walking away. He would give the two of them some space for a bit, and then he'd join them for breakfast.

* * *

Sasha hadn't expected Rita's efforts to be so...intensive.

At least, not until she was practically buried under a pile of books about curses. And that wasn't even all of them, as Ransom had a small stack of books sitting beside him as he read on the couch.

"These are all my books on curses, except the ones I haven't gotten back from Frannie yet," Rita explained. "Mistah Ransom is already going through and seeing if there was anything I missed, and he raised a good point. So we're mostly focusing on the books about fairies and curses right now."

"This is...a lot," Sasha finally managed.

"That's not even counting the book I could probably write if I wanted to," Rita added.

Juno laughed, drawing their attention as he sat down next to the pile. "Yeah, because you've had me as a guinea pig for a decade and a half. I'm surprised you haven't exploited me for money yet."

"Considering all the enchanted stuff I've made using magic from your curse, technically I already have."

"Haha." He sat down and looked over at Sasha, adding, "Hey Sash. Rita dragging you into this too?"

"Hey, she asked!" Rita childishly stuck out a tongue at him, and he rolled his eyes.

Sasha shrugged. "I'm technically on leave until spring, and Annie isn't expecting me for the holidays this year. I might as well make use of my time."

"Oh yeah, how is the twerp?"

She rolled her eyes at him, knowing he meant it as affectionately as possible. "She's in her thirties now, Juno. She's a mother."

Juno blinked. "Damn. She was just a teenager last time I saw her."

Sasha sighed. "Technically we all were, Juno. And the rest of us weren't held captive in their childhood home by a curse. We all had to move forward."

"...Heh." Juno looked down as his large clawed hands.

(She distinctly remembered being taller than Juno, before the curse and nearly twenty years of thinking he was dead. It was weird how huge he was now in comparison to how she remembered him.)

"What do you want to do, Mistah Steel, when the curse is broken?"

Sasha didn't miss Rita's word choice there. She admitted she was slightly skeptical about if the curse could be broken, but she also remembered Juno well, remembered his sharp edges and his tendency towards hopelessness. Rita was doing what Mick had done, leaving no room for doubt to keep Juno from fixating on it.

"I don't know," Juno admitted. "Never really thought that far ahead. Guess I'd finally leave these woods. Go see some of the things I missed, like Mick's store and whatever." Then, after a moment of hesitation, he added, "I think I'd probably try and go see the ocean too. I don't know, feels like the complete opposite of this place."

There was a silent moment, before Ransom noted, "The seaside is beautiful in early summer. Perhaps we'll be able to go there some day."

...Huh.

"Oh...thanks, Ransom. I'd like that." And Sasha imagined that if Juno's face hadn't been covered in fur, he would be bright red.

"We definitely have to have a ladies' day out too," Rita added cheerfully. "Have a day enjoying ourselves wherever we are. Go on an adventure somewhere new and exciting! Like in one of my books." She took a heroic stance. "Juno Steel and Rita, saving the day!"

"Well, I definitely can't miss that," Juno said, and despite saying it like a joke, it didn't feel like one.

Then, Sasha, after a moment, added, "You'll have to visit the capital on occasion, of course. Annie will kill us both if you don't. Besides, there is much more to do there. You can bring Mick with you and he'll insist it's just like old times." It wouldn't be, of course, not without Ben there, but she thought Mick would be happy enough anyway.

(Unlike with Juno, there had been closure with Benzaiten's death. A body to bury, a dead culprit, the rituals to make it easier to cope. With Juno though, he was just gone, killed by some horrible, untouchable creature, his body irretrievable and no rituals to put him to rest. Ultimately, Juno had been alive, but for those years when they had thought he was gone, it stuck with them worse because there was no definite end to it.

She had grieved them both, but Ben's death hadn't haunted her as much as Juno's apparent one.)

"Wow, did Sasha Wire get soft?" Juno teased, and she scoffed.

"Of course not. I'm just interested in my continued survival, obviously."

"Oh yeah, obviously," he retorted in a slightly mocking tone, and Rita giggled at that. And Sasha rolled her eyes and tried not to smile at that.

It couldn't hurt to hope for the best, she decided.

* * *

The snow continued to fall, and so the two hunters remained holed up in the inn, even as they began to grow stir crazy. There was no safe way to continue their journey with the weather the way it was, but it was growing boring. The innkeeper's corpse had long since dried into a husk and broke apart into dust at the happier one's poking, which had been expected. Vampire corpses never lasted long.

Perhaps they should have delayed killing him, played some mind games to stave off the boredom and, in the happier one's case, bloodlust. But they hadn't, so he occupied himself with reckless knife games and she overthought things.

"So, when this quest is done, will this be the end of it?" he asked, and she blinked.

"The end of what?" she asked, confused. "Hunting?"

He nodded. "Of course! After all, this is the beast that made us start hunting in the first place! Once we've killed it, are we just going to return home?"

She scoffed at the suggestion. "And what? Get back under the thumb of the professional evil stepmother and play at being royalty again? Just sit at home, being paraded around like trophies, until she decides to have us killed or you murder everyone in the building out of boredom? Hell no. I'm staying far away once we're done. Plenty of other monsters in the world."

"That is fair," he conceded. "It does make for a good story, doesn't it?" He held a hand up as if about to swoon, dramatically saying, "Two noble children, on the run from a cruel stepmother, orphaned with only each other to rely on for so long-"

"Dad died when we were like twenty-five."

"-fighting their way through the monsters of the world on the adventure of a lifetime! Glorious battles! Daring escapes! An eternal quest for vengeance and peace!" He dramatically fell onto the bed, drawing a snort out of his sister for it. "See? Our life is the thing of incredible adventure novels."

She shook her head. "Everything has to be some epic narrative for you, huh?"

"Well of course! Where's the fun in it otherwise?" He stared up at the ceiling. "Besides, thinking of it all as just characters in a book on an quest...it makes it all less painful. Pain is fun to see on other people, but it's not so fun to experience, even if it does make for a good dramatic moment." He turned his head to look at her, adding, "It's easier, acting like it all happened to a character."

She blinked, surprised by the admission. It was rare, to see him like this. The lack of activity really had to be getting to him if he was actually talking about his feelings in a meaningful way.

(Sometimes she forgot, however badly she had taken the whole thing, it had hit him just as hard, if not worse.)

"Once this blizzard is over, we're going to track down the nearest monster and kill it," she decided firmly, and he grinned at that.

They would be fine. She'd make sure of it.

* * *

It was another sleepless night that had found Peter sitting beside Juno, holding a book and turning the pages as Juno read aloud.

He turned to the next page at one point, waiting for Juno to continue, but was met with silence instead. And he turned to look, about to ask if something was wrong, when Juno finally spoke.

"Are you going to leave when spring arrives, Nureyev?"

(Something about Juno saying his name made his heart leap to his throat. Maybe it was the fact that no one had said it in so long, or maybe it was because Juno's voice was wonderful and it made his name sound like something precious. Maybe it was both. He couldn't answer if you asked.)

And honestly, he wasn't sure what the answer was. Because he didn't know when he would leave, but he knew, eventually, that he would. Staying in one place for so long always grew uncomfortable, and Peter knew that this would be no exception. But leaving the castle was one thing. Leaving Juno, on the other hand...that was something that he struggled to imagine.

Sasha had been correct. Juno had been trapped by his curse, unable to safely leave the woods, and it shouldn't have mattered so much to Peter, but it did. Part of him wanted to whisk Juno away, take him to see everything. And that was where he was unable to answer.

"I don't know," he finally said. "I...there is so much in the world, Juno. So many places I've been, and even more that I haven't. And there is always another job to take, another treasure to steal. But..." He sighed. "It's beautiful, you know? The ocean. You can stand at the edge of the beach, the waves rushing over your feet, and look out over the horizon, and it's like standing at the edge of the world. And beyond what you can see, there are even more beautiful places to explore." He gave a soft smile. "There are cities out there, filled with more people than you can imagine, and marketplaces with food you can't find anywhere else."

"...Sounds amazing," Juno whispered, and Peter reached for his hand just as he had a few nights before, rubbing his thumb against the base of Juno's just like he had then.

"It is," Peter admitted. "And, when the curse is broken, then I want to take you to see the ocean. And then, if you want, the rest of it too."

Juno was quiet for a moment, before asking, "And what if it isn't broken?"

"It will be," Peter said, borrowing Rita's confidence for a moment. Then, he added, "And, if not, then whenever I leave, I will visit. I'll bring souvenirs from heists, recipes that specify the ingredients-" and Juno snorted at that one "-and books for Rita to read. And I will tell you everything about what happened."

"...I'd like that, Nureyev." And Juno's voice was incredibly soft in that moment, and Peter's heart beat a little faster at that. "Thank you."

"Of course, Juno."

Then, after a moment, "...Could you tell me more?"

"Of course." And so he did.

* * *

Juno woke to the sound of giggling, and as he blinked into awareness, he simultaneously was forced to acknowledge the warm weight leaning against his side and the giggling, grinning witch standing before him.

"Not a word," he whispered.

"I wasn't gonna say anything," Rita insisted, and Juno didn't need Mick's passive magic to know that was a lie. Thankfully, she decided not to say whatever she had intended to, and instead sat down at his other side, pulling out what appeared to be a trashy romance novel from...somewhere and opening it in her lap. Instead of beginning to read, however, she looked up at him and asked, as quietly as she could manage, "Mistah Steel, are you happy?"

"...I mean, according to Mick, I'm never happy," Juno snarked, and she elbowed him in the side at that. After a moment though, he added, "But I guess, somehow, I'm approaching something close to that."

"Good," she answered, looking down at her book at that. "You deserve ta be happy."

Juno didn't say anything at that. He wasn't sure what he could say.

He didn't think he deserved much of anything, especially being happy. And yet, Rita said it like it was an objective fact, like there was no argument to be made that Juno had been many things that could have disqualified him for that, a bully, a murderer (even if she had deserved it), a monster. But, with Rita there on one side, reading and giggling at her mindless romance novel, and Nureyev sleeping peacefully on the other side...part of him wanted it.

It felt pointless. Sasha was going to go back to the capital and continue being a knight. Mick was going to keep running his bookstore. Nureyev was going to leave, and maybe he really would come back, or maybe he'd rather stay out in that beautiful world Juno could never get to and he wouldn't. Rita was going to keep trying until she eventually gave up, and maybe she'd stay and maybe she'd go off on those adventures she had been talking about, and he'd be alone again.

It was safer to expect disappointment, and yet...and yet...

Somehow, something that felt like hope had wormed its way into his chest for the first time since...since Ben. Maybe it was seeing Sasha and Mick again, remembering that there had actually been good times at one point. Maybe it was Nureyev, who kept reaching and offering things to Juno that he felt like he hadn't earned, who had only ever known him as what he was and still felt comfortable enough to sleep against him. Maybe it was Rita's relentless optimism and determination, finally chipping away an opening after years of trying. Maybe it was all of it.

Maybe he didn't deserve it. But, in that moment, he quietly wanted it. To be happy.

* * *

"Wow, I forgot this place had a ballroom," Mick admitted, walking into the room. It was dusty as hell, and emptier than he remembered it, but otherwise it still looked pretty cool.

"That's because we only ever when in here when no one else was here," Sasha reminded him. "And the last time we were in here, you mocked me mercilessly for being unable to dance."

"I mean, there's not much point to it right now," Juno pointed out, as Rita ran into the room to look around. Ransom mostly stuck to Juno's side, which didn't surprise Mick too much. He was pretty much an expert at Juno's type, even now, and people who could easily kill him with very little effort were basically the entirety of that. He had a feeling those two were going to be absolutely stupid over each other. "Only thing we actually need is a couple of the bedrooms, kitchen, and the living area."

"Aw man, I wish we had music," Rita whined. "It would be so amazing to dance in here, y'know?"

Ransom finally stepped away from Juno, giving Rita a formal bow in a joking manner and asking, "May I have this dance, my lady?"

Rita giggled at that, before saying in a overly-formal voice, "Why yes, of course good sir." The two of them snickered for a bit, before Ransom led her in a clumsy, exaggerated waltz. Then, Mick looked at Sasha with a grin, and she gave him a fierce glare.

"Absolutely not."

"Aw, c'mon Sasha," he insisted. "I did learn from the best."

She glared at him. "Try and get me to dance and I tell Juno about the night visits."

Mick laughed awkwardly at that. "You know what, nevermind! Hey Jay-"

"No."

"Fair enough!"

Eventually, Ransom spun Rita away, and Rita grinned and grabbed Juno, dragging him out to the dance floor.

"What-Rita!"

She grinned at him brightly. "C'mon, Mistah Steel! You were a noble, weren't ya? You gotta know some dances."

Mick grinned. "Yeah, Jay's a great dancer!"

"Shut your mouth, Mercury!" Juno called, though he did begrudgingly allow Rita to coax him into position before they began to waltz. It took a moment, and Mick guessed Jay probably hadn't danced since before he got cursed, but he managed to find the rhythm of it after a moment and Rita laughed with delight as Juno led them through the dance.

Sasha sat herself on the floor, and Mick looked at Ransom, who was too busy looking and smiling at the two dancers to seem interested in dancing himself, before shrugging and joining her.

"Man...this really makes you wish Ben was here, doesn't it," Mick noted quietly, as Juno spun Rita, who whooped with delight at that. He watched Ransom shake his head after a moment, before approaching and saying something quietly to Juno, who sighed and held his arms out. Looked like he had decided to cut in.

Sasha sighed. "Yes, I guess it does."

They watched as Juno led a much more complicated dance than just a waltz, one that Mick vaguely remembered from when Ben and Juno had decided to show off when Annie had complained about her feet hurting too much to dance anymore and Sasha had agreed just so she had an excuse to stop. Rita gasped with excitement as they showed off, and Mick could tell Juno was loosening up slightly, looking much less awkward about the whole thing.

"...I don't think I'll ever get used to this," Mick decided. "It feels crazy, right? And yet, he's really there. And he looks different and everything, but he's alive." He laughed. "We really got lucky, didn't we?"

Sasha looked at the Mick, and there was something about her expression that made his smile drop. "Mick...I nearly killed him."

"But you didn't," he reminded her, and she let out a frustrated noise.

"But I could have. I _would have_ , if you hadn't realized who he was. And yet, I'm just sitting here and we're all pretending that I didn't nearly kill him. And I lied about why I was here to do it." She clenched her fists. "I've read Rita's books on curses, Mick, and they all say that curses stop working when the target is dead. If you hadn't realized it then, we would have found out it was really him over his _corpse_."

"Sasha," Mick said, his voice serious for once, and she stopped, blinking with surprise. Then he elbowed her in the side lightly, remarking, "You get too much in your own head that you've got to be perfect or whatever. And you're all focused on what could have happened instead of what did. Of what's happening right now." He gestured to Juno, who was dipping Ransom and earning excited applause from Rita for it. "You made a mistake, you got a scar for it, and now it's fine. If you hadn't done that at all, we wouldn't even know Jay is alive, and we'd still be messed up over his not-actual-death." He looked back over at her, continuing, "He's alive, Sasha. That's better than anything we could have asked for. Don't let your head get in the way of letting yourself be happy about it."

She was quiet after that, looking at him with surprise for a moment, but he turned his attention back to the dancing. Rita was now sitting on the floor a bit away from them, and he realized after a moment that there were pink sparkles raining down over Juno and Ransom and she was grinning mischievously. And the two dancers didn't seem to notice, looking a little too caught up in what they were doing and who they were doing it with.

"Of course Juno would be interested in him," Sasha muttered, shaking her head. "He always had the worst taste."

Mick snorted. "Hey, it could be worse. Ransom doesn't look like he's actually gonna try and kill him, just that he's capable of it."

"Hmm...fair." She sighed, a small smile reaching her face. "Ben would be mocking him mercilessly for it. It would be worse than my failed attempts at dancing. He would never be able to live it down."

"Yeah. I'm honestly not sure if Ben would like Ransom or hate his guts," Mick admitted. "It could go either way."

She snorted. "It would have been amazing to watch, though."

"Yeah...it really would have."

They watched as Juno spun Ransom, and Mick had a feeling she also remembered two boys that looked very similar to each other, but that they could always tell apart, showing off to them all those years ago.

* * *

Rita knew that Mister Steel would be aware of her approaching him, unless he was distracted. However, Mister Ransom, unknowingly, had provided just what she needed, holding Mister Steel's attention while she enacted her plan.

"It's just funny to me," Mister Steel noted humorously. "That the ultimate thief can't do basic tasks on his own."

"You were a noble, Juno, I don't think you have the right to judge me."

"Yeah, except I've lived on my own for years and I actually developed life skills." Mister Steel shuddered. "You don't want to know how long it took me to figure out how to sew."

"...How does that even work?"

"Well you see-" Then Rita struck, throwing a snowball that hit Mister Steel right in the back of the head. "Wha-Rita!"

She laughed at his bewildered expression, not noticing Mister Ransom bending down and scooping up snow until the snowball hit her and exploded in her face. She blinked in surprise, before grinning devilishly and moving to scoop more snow into her hands, and the battle began.

She moved to hide behind a tree, occasionally leaning out from her admittedly small amount of shelter to toss a snowball at Mister Ransom, who was a much harder target due to being so ridiculously skinny. And Mister Steel...wait, where was-

Suddenly, there was snow being dumped on top of her, half burying her, and she shrieked with surprise, whirling around to see the smug culprit.

"Mistah Steel!" she shouted, trying to sound appalled by the attack in order to hide how delighted she was that he was participating.

Then, she was caught off guard by laughter. Not huffed amusement or a snort or a bitter, depressing sound. Actual laughter, and Rita blinked before bursting into giggles at that. She wasn't sure she had ever actually heard Mister Steel laugh like that before. It was good.

Then, Mister Steel turned to look at Mister Ransom, who had a smile on his face and was standing by his former hiding place, and said, "Don't get too comfortable, Ransom. I'm coming after you next."

"You'd have to catch me first!" Mister Ransom called lightly, before taking off running, and Mister Steel took off after him. The two of them ran around a bit, lobbing snowballs at each other, and Rita jumped back in, making as many snowballs as she could carry before going after both of them. Everyone for themselves, after all.

Eventually, she flopped into the snow, pleasantly tired, and Mister Steel sat down heavily beside her, and laughing a little breathlessly as he remarked, "That's probably the most running I've done in a while."

Mister Ransom sat down near them, asking, "Did anyone actually win?"

Rita held up a hand from where she was laying down, declaring, "We all won! I've decided it; it is law!"

"Yeah, okay, I guess that's fair," Mister Steel decided. "I guess that means we should all get hot chocolate to celebrate then, huh?"

And Rita was on her feet in seconds, whooping with excitement. "Yes!"

And so the three of them walked back to the castle together, and Rita filled the silence by telling them both about a new book she had found. And if Mister Ransom and Mister Steel kept stealing looks at each other, well Rita wasn't gonna say anything.

* * *

She couldn't influence the weather enough to speed up the progress of the hunters. Even someone like her was not powerful enough to significantly mess with powerful forces of nature to that extent. That was like asking someone to still the ocean, or to set off a volcano. She did what she could, not as much as she could have done if she didn't have a consistent drain on her magic, but it seemed the weather would not permit the hunters to reach their target until spring at the earliest.

It was annoying, but she simply had to let it be. It would all be over, soon enough.

She could hear the thrum of irritation from the angry hunter, and the building anticipation from the happy one. She grimaced, shaking her head at the foreign emotions. Feeling what your charges felt strongly was an annoying side effect of it all, as if the entire arrangement wasn't horrible enough. She thought the queen must be laughing at her expense, not only at her role, but at being tied to two charges instead of just one.

It was...an obstacle, of course, though she had managed to make it work in her favor. Angry children said many things without thinking, after all, and she couldn't be blamed for taking a little girl's insistence that her mother "go away" so literally. And their father had loved to collect things that were beautiful and seemingly untouchable, so she simply made herself one. And most of the little requests could be filled with her having little part in them.

But then, the two of them, without intending, had to ask for a monster to defeat. Just stupid childhood fantasies, but they had wanted it enough to force her to be obliged to give them one. And now, now she might finally be done with it.

It had been easy to create the perfect monster. A simple curse, the easiest target (too emotionally compromised to find a way to break the curse, easy enough to set off to find an excuse), a manufactured tragedy. He would have appreciated the extent she had gone to to give him his little story.

She hadn't expected someone to try draining the magic away. Witches weren't rare, per say, but not common enough for her to have assumed that one would find the beast and get close enough to make an attempt to break the curse that way. Which meant that the curse had become a drain on her power. Another infuriating part of this arrangement.

She had hoped the monsters they had fought together would be enough to fulfill the request, take away the compulsion to keep fueling the curse, but no. None of those other beasts were difficult enough for the glorious battle they wanted. None of them had the emotional impact. It had to be the beast she had created, as it was the only one that would fulfill their desire.

Either they would succeed and she would be done, or they would die and she would be free.

Min Kanagawa wouldn't mind either way, ultimately.

* * *

When Juno blinked awake, he felt like he could still hear Ben's voice, but he couldn't remember the words, and his body felt too big as always. And there was that familiar pain in his chest, that he always had when he had those dreams. Then he realized where he was, with fire burning in the fireplace, the table with three empty mugs nearby, and Rita and Nureyev sleeping on either side of him.

Rita was snoring softly, hugging his arm to her chest as she did. Nureyev was still, his breaths quiet as his weight rested against Juno's side.

It was...nice.

He couldn't help the smile that came to his face, strange and probably creepy looking if he could have seen it in that moment. And then he gave a yawn and decided, for the first time in a while, to just close his eyes and let himself go back to sleep.

* * *

_Dear Sasha,_

_Forgive me for being skeptical, but are you absolutely sure that the information you want to tell me isn't completely soul-crushing? I was sixteen the last time you told me you had something to tell me in person, and you were so completely devastated you could barely get the words out. You didn't even invite me to your knighting ceremony in person and we live in the same city! And you were really evasive about why you were going back there, especially since you hate it there. You still haven't told me why. ~~Does this have something to do with Juno's death?~~ _

_As for how us, we're all doing fine. Hera got a new toy boat in her presents this year and she just won't let the damn thing go. It's absolutely adorable, and Lucy sure is proud of herself. As if we didn't pick out the presents together. They miss you by the way, and Hera is probably going to tackle you the moment she sees you. Nothing a seasoned knight such as yourself can't handle, of course._

_Glad to hear Mick is doing okay. I know you were surprised that the bookstore hadn't gone under, but come on, Sasha. You know how important reading was to Mick when he learned how to do it. Of course this would be the one to work out._

_Also, just wanted to let you know that one of the knights Lucy gets drinks with on occasion mentioned there were apparently reports of serial killings of werewolves a bit south of here. Sounds like it might be those hunters you were talking about a while back. Lucy's friend thinks the queen is probably going to ask you to investigate once you're no longer on leave. She's not happy about senseless deaths of her citizens, and after the bribery mess you're one of the few knights she trusts to look into it._

_Can't wait to see you when you get back. Tell Mick that Hera loves the book he sent along with your letter, and she keeps making me or Lucy reread it to her._

_Love you,_

_Annie_

* * *

Peter knew the end of winter was approaching soon.

Sasha began to join them more in the castle, pouring over the curse books with him as Mick chattered with Rita and stole bits of food as Juno cooked, Juno giving him dirty looks as he did. Peter guessed that she knew it was coming too, since she would no longer be on leave once spring arrived, and thus was trying to do as much as she could in the time she had. And Peter...he didn't know what he was going to do yet.

They had yet to find anything new, that Rita may have missed. And Peter had a feeling they wouldn't find anything before she had to leave, before _he_ had to leave.

Still, he hadn't given up. Even when he did leave, whenever that was, he wasn't going to simply quit. No, the way Rita had talked about it, there were likely other witches with other books she hadn't found yet. It would be very little trouble to ask, ultimately, to do his own research when he traveled, bring something back when he visited. He wasn't going to give up on the possibility of Juno's freedom.

Peter Nureyev had promised to show Juno Steel the ocean at the very least. He would do what he could to ensure it.

"How would you feel about Annie seeing you in the future?" Sasha asked while they all crowded the kitchen, Peter sitting on the counter as usual.

Juno frowned. "I don't know. Doesn't she have a kid and a job to worry about?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "She also has a wife who shares parenting duties. She could even bring Hera along if you're really worried about it. And she is perfectly capable to taking a vacation." She turned the page in the book she was reading. "I was already planning on telling Annie that you're alive. This is just me asking if I need to make sure she doesn't come down to see you the moment she learns."

There was silence for a bit, as Juno thought about it, before he said, "I don't think she should bring her kid. But...I don't think I'd mind, if she did come. If she wants to." He shrugged. "I did kind of treat her like shit when we were kids."

"Oh my god," Sasha grumbled, closing the book and looking up at him. "We were thirteen, Juno. All of us were involved. Even _Ben_ wasn't particularly nice to her then. By the time we all thought you were dead, we hadn't been bullying Annie for _years_. And she was just as devastated by you being gone as the rest of us. Of course she'll want to see you."

"Yeah Jay," Mick added, popping a piece of pepper into his mouth before Juno could look over at him. The unamused expression on Juno's face made it clear that yes, he did know Mick had taken it. "Maybe she doesn't really have a choice with Sasha, but if she really held something against you for that shit, then she'd also have a problem with me too. And she doesn't, so you're cool."

"We all do dumb things as kids," Rita added knowledgeably. "When I was sixteen, I decided I was gonna be a traveling bard. Then my mom had ta sit me down gently and tell me, 'Rita, I love ya, but ya sing like a dyin' cat.'"

Juno snorted at that. "And she was right."

"Yeah," Rita agreed, before turning to Peter. "What kinda dumb things did you do as a kid, Mistah Ransom?"

(Blood under his fingernails and a name abandoned and crying over a man who built their entire relationship on lies. Dedicating his young life to a cause inherited from a man who didn't exist. Wanting so badly to be someone whose name was remembered and to be seen as a protector and a savior, without knowing the cost.)

"Ransom?"

Juno's voice broke him out of his thoughts for a moment, and he smiled warmly and simply said, "I can't think of anything at the moment, Rita. I'll let you know when I do."

"Okay," Rita answered simply, and there was a shift in her tone there, one that told him that she knew that was a lie, but that she also knew to leave it alone. "What about you, Mistah Mercury?"

"Oh me? If you ask anyone who knew me back then, they'd say every other thing I did was stupid." Mick laughed as he said that, clearly unbothered by that sentiment, before diving into a story that allowed Peter a moment to breathe, to not think about his own childhood anymore.

And Juno gave him a concerned look and he flashed him a smile. One that said, "Maybe later." And Juno gave a small nod and turned to gently slap Mick's hand away from where he was cooking and to give his commentary on the story.

And it was nice.

He would have to leave, at some point after winter was over. But, for now, he imagined this moment lasting longer, imagined what it would be like to stay for once.

* * *

The snow reflecting the moonlight as Rita walked with Mister Mercury and Miss Wire back to the village that night was beautiful, she decided. Lots of things were beautiful, if you allowed yourself to enjoy them. Books and fireplaces and rainy days and so on. Rita liked to put her all into enjoying them because it never got boring then.

"Do you think Ransom's going to break the curse?" Mister Mercury piped up, gaining the attention of Rita and Miss Wire in that moment. "I mean, they do have that weird thing going on between them. And it is supposed to be true love, right? Maybe not right now, but...eventually?"

Miss Wire frowned. "That depends on the caster's definition of true love, right Rita?" She looked at Rita, who nodded.

"Yeah," Rita confirmed for her. "I knew there was an unspoken condition going on, and it might be that the caster thinks only romantic love is true love?" She shrugged. "It's complicated, y'know? We don't really know anything for sure 'bout the caster 'cept how her magic looks, and that can't tell us how she sees love." She looked down at the path in front of her, continuing, "I think I don't like it, though, however she sees it. It hurts, loving someone and it not being enough."

"...Yeah," Mister Mercury agreed, with a weird sadness in his voice. "It does, doesn't it."

Miss Wire didn't look at either of them in that moment, and her tone was incredibly flat as she said, "Juno has always had...problems, Rita. And caring about him didn't fix them, as much as we wanted it to, because he wouldn't bring himself to try. Instead, he shut us out, or he lashed out and hurt us, or he did everything he could to drive us away. And that wasn't on us for not caring enough."

Rita could imagine it. That was very much like the Mister Steel she had met years before, the Mister Steel she still saw bits of with every attempt he made to get her to give up on trying to break the curse, the Mister Steel who had given up so much that he wouldn't fight back when faced with an opponent who wanted to kill him and wouldn't actually treat his wounds unless Rita was there to force him to do it or to do it for him. And she had been lucky, lucky that she had the energy and time and effort to keep trying, lucky that he had started listening when she called him out, lucky that he had gotten to a point where he could thank her for saving his life and she could believe he meant it.

"And this problem is one that is outside of your control _and_ his," Miss Wire added, finally looking over at her, and there was a fierce sort of determination there. "Your affection for him isn't worth less just because it can't fix what you didn't break to begin with. You're doing all you can, and you aren't responsible for the rest."

"...Thanks, Miss Wire," Rita said, smiling at that. "I needed ta hear that."

Miss Wire nodded firmly. "Good." She turned her attention back to the path. "You've done a lot for him, Rita. More than anyone could have asked of you. He should appreciate you more for it."

And Rita shrugged at that. "He could definitely say it more, to be honest, but...I think he does."

* * *

_Dear Annie,_

_I promise the news is nothing like last time. I'll be home soon and I'll tell you everything. What I can tell you about the situation is that you will have to bear with me, there is a lot to explain and it is complicated by numerous factors. I'd rather explain it to you alone first, before involving Lucy or Hera, because of the personal nature of this. But I promise, no one is dead this time. ~~Exactly the opposite, in fact.~~_

_Do you remember when we were children, the way my friends and I used to bully you for just wanting to be included? I don't think I ever properly apologized for that. You deserved better. I know that it was a point of pride for you, earning our respect, but you shouldn't have had to earn it in the first place. I'm sorry._

_I'm glad Hera enjoyed the holidays, and Mick was happy to learn that she loved the book. And yes, you do raise a valid point. I guess it's been so long that I forgot just how important it must have been for him to succeed at this._

_I also met a local apothecary by the name of Rita while I was here. I am terrified of the possibility of you meeting her, in all honesty. I imagine you'll get along too well._

_I'll see you soon. Give Hera and Lucy my love._

_Love,_

_Sasha_

* * *

Spring looked like it would be early this year, Juno realized as he watched the thaw begin. Or maybe the time was just slipping through his fingers faster than usual, because he was actually enjoying himself and it needed to remind him that this was all temporary. That things were going to go back to normal, that those three months were just a blip compared to the years of being alone he was already used to.

"Hey Jay!" Mick called, and Juno paused in the middle of reloading the crossbow he was aiming at the target. "So I thought of this new idea-"

"That can't be good," Juno remarked, finishing reloading and taking another shot at the target.

"And I was thinking...holy shit, I forgot how good you are at that." Mick was soon by his side, looking at the target with a grin on his face. "Nice to see some things don't change, huh?"

Juno shrugged. "Yeah, it took me weeks to figure out how to do it again." He held up one of his clawed hands. "These aren't exactly the easiest to use, Mercury."

Mick nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I figured it'd be weird. You were always a pretty small lady, Jay, so having the big hulking body must feel super weird."

He blinked. "Yeah...it does." How the hell...Juno would never understand Mick.

"Well don't worry about it, buddy," Mick assured him, patting his shoulder. It should have been awkward, but from Mick it was just how he was. "I may not be good at understanding the whole magic thing, but everyone's working on helping you out. Maybe I'll see if I can get some magic books Rita doesn't have yet?" He elbowed Juno lightly in the side. "For once I'll actually get to help you out of a problem, huh? Not much like old times at all."

Juno let out an amused huff, lightly shoving Mick to the side and earning a laugh from him. "Don't go getting a big head about it, Mercury."

Maybe things weren't going to go back to that normal he was used to, were they? Because Mick was an idiot, but he was a good idiot. And, kind of like Rita, he was going to keep coming whether Juno wanted him to or not.

Maybe things would be okay.

* * *

Peter packed a bag that Rita had found for him, filled it with a few of the items that he had picked out to sell before winter had even begun, a few books Rita insisted he take (some about curses and some adventure novels that she insisted he would love), and food. And, when he finished, he sought Juno out in the living room, where he was saying goodbye to Sasha.

"I'll probably have to start working immediately once I return," Sasha explained. "So I don't know if I'll be able to visit again anytime soon. But I'm sure Annie will decide to come here after I return."

"Yeah, okay." Juno shrugged. "Take care of yourself, okay Sash? Maybe send a letter to Mick or something, he'll probably appreciate it."

She nodded firmly. "Of course." There was silence for a moment, before she finally muttered, "Okay, fuck this," and moved forward, hugging Juno in a move that caused him to stiffen for a moment, before slowly returning the gesture. "Take care of yourself, Juno. If not for your sake, then at least so I don't have to receive another letter about your death."

"...Yeah, okay," he answered again, his voice quiet. The two stood there for a while, before Juno added, "This is weird, let's stop."

"Yes please," Sasha agreed, and the two of them immediately released each other, brushing themselves off. "I think one hug per assumed death is enough."

Juno gave a snort. "Glad to see you haven't changed much."

They nodded to each other, before she stated, "I better finish packing my things from Mick's then. Stay safe, Juno."

"I'll try my best."

And with that, Sasha walked away, stopping by Peter for a moment and giving him a fierce look that reminded him of his bruised ribs after trying to fight her for a moment. She didn't say anything, just looked at him, and Peter felt, for a moment, as if she were silently threatening him. And, when she finally spoke, her voice was low and flat.

"I'm doing Juno a favor by not turning you in. Don't make me regret it." Then she continued out the door, where Mick was waiting for her outside, and Peter remembered how to breathe.

(Was that a shovel talk? Was that her threatening to turn him in if he committed crimes or her telling him that if he hurt Juno she was going to kill him? Both? No, no time to think about it.)

"Hey Nureyev," Juno greeted, and Peter was never going to get used to hearing his name with Juno's voice. "You finally heading off too?"

"Yes," Peter admitted with a nod. "Rita has left me with some literature to take with me, and if I find anything that might help, I'll bring it when I come to visit."

"You...you don't have to-" Juno began, but Peter didn't let him finish that.

"Of course I do," he answered, stepping forward. "I made a promise, didn't I? At the very least, allow me the chance to fulfill it someday." He placed a hand on Juno's arm gently, continuing, "I will come back, Juno. And I'll tell you everything I've seen while I was gone."

"...Thanks, Nureyev." Juno gave a small smile, and it looked wrong on his face, this face that wasn't his, and maybe someday Peter would get to see what he really looked like, in the body that he was comfortable in. "Don't take too long to come visit, okay? Rita will probably be sad if you do." And Peter could practically hear the unspoken sentiment in those words, that Juno would also be upset about it.

"I'll be back to visit before next winter," Peter decided in that moment. Then, not allowing himself to think too much about it, he tugged Juno down just enough so that he could give him a soft kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for your hospitality, Juno. I appreciated it."

"Y...Yeah. Of course." Juno's voice sounded a little flustered at that. "Just...take care of yourself, okay?"

Peter nodded, his face feeling warm as he tried not to think too much about what he had just done. "Of course. You too."

They looked at each other for a moment, and Peter considered saying something else. But he couldn't think of the words, so he simply nodded to Juno and turned, heading for the door.

"Mistah Ransom!"

Rita suddenly burst into the room, holding a sheathed sword in her arms and looking slightly out of breath, and he blinked at the sight.

Then, she approached and shoved the sword into his arms, explaining in a rush, "It's the sword from that knight who got all weird and mean in the fall, remember? I enchanted it to do kinda what I do, ya know? When you're holding it, injuries heal faster, and it's something you can use to defend yourself? 'Cuz Mistah Steel has me and all, but if you're gonna be traveling for a while then I thought, hey this might help? And it might be a bit bigger than those knives but it'll probably be good if you get in a situation again?"

Peter looked at the sword, then smiled at Rita and said, "Thank you, Rita. I'll bring some books for you when I come back."

She grinned at that. "You better! And I'll share some more good ones with ya too!"

He carefully pulled the sheath's strap over his head, so he could wear the sword on his back. It would work well if he needed to disguise himself as a knight, and Rita was correct that it would probably be a much more effective weapon in a straight on fight if he wasn't able to hide.

Once he had it on, he turned to Juno and said, "I'll see you soon, Juno."

"Yeah, see you soon."

And, with that, he turned and went out the door.

The sun was starting to set, and Rita had told him that if he headed west in a straight line there would be a path that could lead him the rest of the way from the woods. He hoped she was correct. She did tend to mix up her directions some.

He wondered how long it would take the loneliness to set in, now that he was leaving.

* * *

"Are you sure you remember the way?" the angry hunter asked her brother, adjusting her grip on the axe in her hands. Her's was clean at the very least, unlike her brother's, since he insisted the blood added character. She mostly thought it was just gross, leaving werewolf blood all over their weapons, but she hadn't been able to convince him otherwise, and a bloody weapon was better than no weapon at all.

"Of course! I know these woods like the back of my hand!" He waved one of his hands at her to illustrate his point, the one she knew was fake.

She still hadn't understood how their dad had managed to get something like that, only that a new one always showed up when he needed it.

"Haha, Cecil, funny." She shoved him, earning a laugh from that. Then, she shook her head. "Damn, it's been years. We're fucking old now."

"Oh don't remind me, Cassandra!" Cecil cried dramatically. "My skin is already starting to wrinkle! What will I do when my natural beauty fades away?"

She raised an amused eyebrow at him. "What natural beauty?"

Cecil made a scandalized noise at that, and she snickered. He was too easy to make fun of.

"Alright alright, if you are so sure you remember these woods, where the fuck are we right now?" Cass asked, raising an eyebrow. They had been seventeen the last time they had been there, and she doubted he'd actually know how to-

"We're only about an hour's walk away from the castle, if we head that way," Cecil explained easily. "We just have to go past that twisted looking tree we used to climb, remember?" He grinned. "I was always the villain of the story, obviously, with Benny as the hostage, and it would be you and Junebug arriving to save the day. And it was always so much fun until one of us got hurt and poor Junebug nearly fainted at the sight of blood."

Cass blinked at that, looking closer at the tree. And yeah, now that she thought about it, she did remember. Cecil used to stand on one of the branches, dramatically monologuing about how his victory was definitely assured, at least until he got hit in the head with an acorn from Juno's slingshot and complained about not being allowed to finish. And Ben laughed so hard he'd fall out of the tree.

Huh. She hadn't thought about that in a while.

"Alright, guess you do remember then," she conceded, elbowing him lightly. "Lead the way then. We might get this bastard killed before tomorrow morning."

Cecil grinned delightfully at that, but Cass didn't focus on that.

It had been years since they had been here, but she hadn't forgotten why they were back here, what the monster they were about to kill had done. And she knew that between her and Cecil, they were going to make sure that it regretted it for every painful moment before it died.

Cecil might have been the sadist of the two, but Cass had enough anger in her to match his sadism. And between the two of them, there was no way that fucker was making it past sunrise.

* * *

"Aw, don't worry, Mistah Steel," Rita reassured Juno, patting him on the shoulder as they ate together in the living area. She had insisted on it, barely leaving his side for even a moment since Sasha and Nureyev had left earlier. He didn't mind too much. He was pretty sure being alone right now would just mess with his head. "Mistah Ransom didn't even take all the stuff he said he was going to ages ago. He's definitely going to come back." Then she gave him a teasing grin. "Besides, why wouldn't he come back to a nice, lovely lady like you?"

Juno groaned. "A guy falls asleep on you twice and suddenly people are asking when the wedding is."

Rita laughed at him, before asking, "How about I braid your mane some? No enchanting or anything, and it might help ya to relax?"

"...Yeah, I'd actually like that."

Rita nodded, climbing up onto the couch behind Juno and beginning to work on braiding sections of fur. And he closed his eyes and let himself relax for a moment, enjoy the nice, gentle tugs on his scalp as she worked.

Then, he frowned. Something was...weird. He couldn't tell what it was, but something was off.

"Hey Rita?" he asked after a moment. "Could I see your pendant for a second?"

"Oh, sure!" Rita shifted a bit behind him before handing him the pink crystal apple, and he carefully held it in his hand and closed his eyes. Without the assistance, his apparently unnatural awareness usually never extended past the room with any sort of clarity. But, with the necklace in hand, he could sense movement outside, two people approaching.

"...Rita, two people are coming up to the castle," he explained.

"Maybe it's Miss Wire and Mistah Mercury?" Rita suggested excitedly. "Maybe she's coming by to say goodbye again?"

"...No, it's not them." Their movements seemed off, and they were stopping outside the door. If it had been Mick and Sasha, Mick would have just burst in without hesitation, with Sasha complaining that he could have at least knocked. Or they would have entered through the secret passages at Mick's insistence. But no, these people had slowed to a stop. And then, one of them moved.

And both he and Rita could hear the sound of an axe burying itself into the wood door.

"Rita, run," Juno insisted, shoving the necklace back into her hands.

"Mistah Steel, what's-" The axe hit the door again, causing her to squeak, and they could hear delighted, mocking laughter.

"Come on now, my furry friend! I believe it's time for you to die!" And the voice was too cheerful at the concept in Juno's opinion.

"Run!" he repeated, and Rita looked at him for a moment before jumping from the couch and darting out of the room, just as the doors burst open in splinters of wood and there were footsteps heading his way. And he needed to make sure that they stayed away from Rita, long enough for her to get out of there, and so he let the intruders get a good look at him before running in a different direction, letting them chase after him.

This was gonna suck.

"Get back here!" one of the intruder's shouted, something about her voice almost familiar, and he knew he needed to lose them, just long enough to grab his crossbow and actually stand a chance in this fight.

"No thanks!" he called behind him, trying to remember where he left the damn thing.

Right. The kitchen.

He had to move fast.

* * *

Rita hated the secret passages. They were terrifying and almost certainly haunted in her personal opinion, and sure some of the books she had read had ghosts who were friendly or cute or sexy and they seemed okay but other books had scary ghosts that wanted to make living people hurt for whatever reasons and she didn't have time to know what kind of ghosts were in the passages because she could hear Mister Steel through the walls, and she could hear the people going after him, hear angry shouts and that creepy cheerful laughter that made her shiver.

She knew monster hunters were a thing. She just hadn't expected Mister Steel to be a target of them, not when he kept as low of a profile as he did.

She needed to do something, and so she chose to move upward.

Mister Steel would probably be mad at her for not just leaving the castle, but she wasn't going to leave him alone with monster hunters! He wasn't so good at up close fighting, and monster hunters weren't going to be intimidated by him and probably had experience compensating for being smaller and not as strong as their targets. Unless he managed to get a hold of a bow or a crossbow, he was outmatched.

She needed to get help, and so she moved upwards through the passages, finally finding what looked like a way out next to a carving that read, "Annie Wire is the coolest." And beyond the exit to the passages was a tower.

Perfect.

She leaned out the window of the tower as far as she could, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. This was going to have to be big, big enough to be seen from far away, and it needed to last long enough so that it couldn't be missed. Which meant it was going to have to take quite a bit of magic.

And, after a moment, she held up her hand and cast the spell, and there was an explosion of pink sparks.

* * *

"Well, I imagine I'm never going to get you to move your shop now," Sasha noted, as she finished packing her things. 

"Nope," Mick agreed cheerfully. "Besides, if I don't stick around, that's one less person to keep an eye on Jay. Can't really do that, huh?"

Sasha gave a small snort. "That's true." She frowned at her bags for a moment, before noting, "It's going to be...different, going back to work after everything. Our world for nearly two decades has been completely turned upside down, and now I just have to go back to work. Pretend that nothing has changed at all."

He shrugged, turning to the counter in his living area to finish wrapping up the food for Sasha to take with her on the way back to the capital, when he noticed something in the distance.

It was a large, bright burst of pink light over the woods, and he stared at it for a moment, before saying, "Uh...Sasha?"

She looked up from her bags to the window, and he could see the way her face went slack with the realization.

"Something's wrong," she whispered, before grabbing one of her sword and securing it around her waist. "Rita is too aware of the consequences of getting exposed to make use of flashy magic like that." She was out the door in seconds, and Mick was right on her heels.

Both of them ignored the villagers who were staring at the light with confusion, racing for the woods as fast as they could.

It wasn't just some weird magical light show, Mick realized as they raced through the woods that they both knew like second nature.

It was a warning flare.

* * *

Peter found the path just as there was a flash of light behind him, illuminating everything around him in pink, and he turned to see, back in the direction he had come from, a huge burst of pink light in the air.

His blood ran cold, and before he knew it he was running towards that light, back towards the castle he had left barely an hour ago, when the sun was starting to set.

_Juno._

* * *

He only had four bolts with his crossbow where it was sitting in the kitchen. The rest were in the shed, which he was not going to be able to get to in time, so he'd need to make use of what he had and hope that he might be able to stop the attackers at least long enough to find more.

"Hello beastie!" one of the intruders called in his dramatic tone, and Juno quickly loaded the crossbow and aimed, firing at him the moment he was visible.

It hit the intruder in the right arm, embedded in it firmly. But there was no blood, no painful reaction, instead golden light bleeding through a crack around the bolt, and the arm flashed to look almost like the arm of a wooden doll for a moment instead of a real human one, and he knew exactly who he was dealing with, because he had seen that arm years ago and knew who the owner of it was way too well.

"Cecil?" he asked, confused as hell, and Cecil laughed as he reached and tugged the bolt from his arm.

"Glad to see you've heard of me," he remarked cheerfully. "Now don't worry, dear monster. I'll make sure to make your last moments are absolutely breathtaking!"

Yep, that was definitely Cecil Kanagawa.

"Yeah, I'll have to pass," he decided, reloading the crossbow and shooting it again. Cecil blocked the bolt with his hand, which distracted him long enough for Juno to rush forward and push him to the side, making his escape out of the kitchen and trying to figure out a more defensible position.

He only had two bolts left, which wasn't good. It was a possibility that there were more in his room, but he couldn't know for sure, and he'd be cornered if there wasn't. 

Before he could think too much more on that, he had to swiftly dodge an axe swinging at him, and the growled out threats of the woman he now recognized as Cassandra Kanagawa.

What a small fucking world.

He quickly moved down the hall, Cass and Cecil running after him and Cass shouting out an angry, "Get back here!"

Juno Steel remembered Cass and Cecil vividly, remembered that Cecil's sadism and Cass' anger problems combined and directed towards him meant that he was well and truly fucked. He didn't have enough crossbow bolts and in all honesty he didn't _want_ to potentially kill them, though he probably could manage it. Cecil was...Cecil, but he was also kind of pathetic in a way that could make even Juno feel bad for him. And he _liked_ Cass, at least at one point. Maybe not so much when she was about to kill him.

He ran up the stairs turning when he reached the top and carefully pointing the crossbow at the rope holding the chandelier aloft, shooting it and sending it crashing to the stairs in front of Cass and Cecil. Then he turned and ran down the hall.

"What kind of monster uses a fucking crossbow?!" Cass shouted, sounding annoyed, and Juno couldn't hear Cecil's response as he ducked into his room, digging through his drawers and looking for...yes!

It was only five more bolts, but considering he had only been carrying one before finding them, it would have to work. He needed to get out of here before they caught up with him.

He was back out the door in seconds, moving down the halls as he heard more of Cecil's laughter and Cass' furious growling. He didn't know what he had done to piss Cass off, considering he hadn't even been doing a particular amount of talking, which was normally the breaking point for most people. No point in thinking of that right now. He needed to figure out a plan.

"Stop moving!" And that was Cass again, which was a fucking disaster.

Juno nearly crashed into a table in the hallway, which slowed him down enough for Cass and Cecil to end up getting close enough for her to take a swing.

The axe hit a shield, one that Juno recognized as once being displayed on the wall downstairs, and behind that shield was a furious looking Sasha. And behind a partially opened hole in the wall was a panicked looking Mick.

When the hell-

"Run," Sasha ordered firmly. "I'll hold them off."

"Like hell am I going to just-"

"If you don't run right now then they'll be the least of your problems," she warned him, looking back at him just long enough to fix him with her burning gaze.

So Juno decided to do the smart thing for once and listen.

* * *

"Cassandra, you go after the beast!" the cheerier of the monster hunters, the man that Sasha knew of by the name of Cecil Kanagawa, insisted. "I'll handle our unwelcome guest!"

"Are you sure?" the other hunter, Cassandra Kanagawa, asked, seeming surprised by the offer.

"It'll make for a better story," Cecil remarked, almost serenely. "Besides, you are much more passionate about killing the monster than I am. I'll let you have this one."

Sasha growled at them, pulling her sword from her sheath and glaring at them fiercely. "Stand down, now."

"...Thanks Cecil." Then, Cassandra turned and ran the other way.

Oh.

She was going around the other goddamn way, probably to intercept Juno, and Cecil Kanagawa was now blocking Sasha from following her.

"You seem like quite the impressive knight, ma'am," Cecil remarked, hefting his blood-covered axe over his shoulder. "I think it'll be absolutely wonderful to see how much I can make you bleed before you give up."

"Uh, Sasha?" Mick asked from the passage, but Cecil's gaze snapped over to him and he went quiet.

Then, the hunter grinned. "Or maybe I'll go after your friend in the tunnels. He seems much more fun to-"

Sasha moved in an instant, and Cecil barely had time to lift his arm and block the strike from her sword with it. The sword cracked the surface, and instead of blood there was golden light and the surface blinked to appear to be made of wood. And Cecil grinned impossibly wider at that.

"Maybe you are the fun one after all," he decided, and with that, the battle was on.

She had expected him to be a difficult opponent. Hunters weren't exactly inexperienced when it came to fighting, and this man reportedly killed werewolves during full moons, which was simultaneously when they were most vulnerable and also most deadly. But that goddamn arm, that she hadn't been expecting. She could damage the surface, leave it blinking between looking like a wooden doll's limb and human, leave cracks that spilled golden light. But it wouldn't stop moving, and Sasha kept having to deflect the axe with the shield, which was meant to be ornamental more than anything.

"Miss Wire!"

She blinked, blocking another axe strike and barely having time to glance at Rita before the sword was pulled from her hand.

"Rita?!" She used the shield to shove Cecil back. "What are you doing?! Give that back!"

"Just give me a minute!" Rita called, ducking back into the passage way where Mick was still watching.

"Rita!" Sasha blocked another hit, gritting her teeth in frustration. What the hell was Rita thinking, taking her only weapon? She couldn't stop the hunter with only a goddamn shield.

Then Rita began to sing something, and, out of the corner of her eye, she could see pink light sparking behind her. What was she even doing?

Cecil laughed, and Sasha moved to block another hit, having to take a step back. "I always wanted music to be played during a battle, you know? It just gives an extra element of drama to the whole thing! But Cassandra, she insists that it's a bad idea, that having a bard traveling with us will only get them killed! But that just adds to the danger, you know?"

Rita's singing stopped, and she called out, "Almost got it!"

"Hurry up!" Sasha barked out, blocking another hit with the shield. The damn thing was a decorative piece that couldn't take much more of this.

"Aaaaaaaaaand, there!" Then Rita was by her side in an instant, passing the sword to Sasha. "I'm gonna go help Mistah Steel. Stay safe!" And then Rita disappeared back into the passages without a trace, and Sasha clenched her jaw before focusing back on Cecil.

She blocked the next blow, shoved him back to throw him off balance, then moved to strike. It hit his damn wooden arm again, which was frustrating. Everything about this was frustrating.

They volleyed hits back and forth a bit, Sasha finally managing to gain some of the ground she had lost back. She managed another strike to the wooden arm, and then something happened.

The golden light died, and the human looking glamour on the surface vanished completely, the arm falling limp to Cecil's side as it did. His eyes went wide, and he lifted the now limp arm up with confusion, before turning to Sasha.

"Honestly, this has never happened before," he admitted casually, as if they were just having a sparring match and he hadn't been eagerly going on about killing her friend earlier. "I'm not sure how you managed to do that. But no matter." Cecil spun the axe in his other, still functioning hand, and grinned viciously. "I don't need both arms to kill you, after all." And then he through himself back into the fight, and Sasha didn't have time to question it.

* * *

Mister Steel had said the castle had been built by a paranoid man who didn't trust anyone not to murder him, and Rita understood it in that moment. She could hear most of what was happening in the castle through the passages in the walls, could still hear the creepy laughter as Miss Wire fought one of the hunters even as she got farther away.

The magic arm the man had had been some real complicated magic, but it was just like a curse in its own way, containing all the magic it needed to maintain it. And so Rita had just had to prepare Miss Wire's sword for enchantment, just like all the pendants she had ever braided into Mister Steel's mane, and turn him using his arm into a shield against him. It was a magic source just like Mister Steel was, after all.

Hopefully, Miss Wire wouldn't need the enchantment at all. But it hadn't hurt to give it a useful one, just in case.

She didn't know where Mister Steel was in the castle, so instead she followed the sound of footsteps heading away from Miss Wire and Mister Mercury. The lady hunter was after Mister Steel, and if she kept following her, than she'd find Mister Steel when the lady did.

She hoped she could make it to him before things got bad.

* * *

The door had been broken to pieces when Peter entered, and he could hear fighting in the distance. And so he pulled the necklace Rita had given him on and slipped into the shadows, moving as quickly as he could into the castle.

There was still time. There had to be.

* * *

Choosing the ballroom to set up in hadn't been an easy choice, but Juno knew that he didn't have much time. Giving his opponents very little place to duck for cover was probably his best bet, and there were very few places where he could get the high ground. He honestly wished he had Nureyev's passive magic in that moment, to give him another advantage over Cass and Cecil, but all he could do is position himself on the balcony with the door as cover and wait.

The doors burst open, and Juno fired the first bolt, letting it embed in the wall after darting right past Cass' ear.

That didn't deter Cass, unsurprisingly. Instead, she growled as she rushed inside.

Juno shot a bolt at the rope holding the chandelier aloft, causing it to drop down in front of her.

"Running out of tricks, aren't you?" Cass called, frustration in her voice as she side-stepped the mess.

"I'm not the one who put so many fucking chandeliers in this place," Juno piped up, stepping from behind his cover just as Cass was close, pointing the crossbow right at her chest. "And you know, it's kind of rude to attack a lady in his home. So why don't we talk this out?"

She blinked in surprise at the move, before scowling. "You really think you're going to get me to listen to you when you have a weapon pointed at me?"

"Well considering how you were swinging that axe earlier, I'm pretty sure this is the only way to get you to listen to me at all," he answered firmly. "And actually, I'm going to do something I've never done and let you do the talking. Isn't that a thing, villainous monologuing?

Cass laughed at that, though it was dark and cold. "You seriously think you're the good guy?"

"You literally attacked me in my home!" Juno pointed out, his voice incredulous.

"This place isn't _yours!_ " she shouted at him, and he was startled by just how pissed she sounded at that. And also how wrong she was, which would be funny if she wasn't looking really close to calling his bluff about shooting her and trying to attack him again. "And if you think I'm not pissed as fuck about this, you're dead wrong. First you kill my friend and then you just shack up in his old home like some weird fucking squatter?"

_What?._

"What?"

Then Cass moved, swinging her axe with all the ferocity of some avenging angel, and Juno did the smart thing and jumped to the side.

Cass had never really struck him as much of a killer. But it had been nearly twenty years and Juno wasn't exactly human anymore. The combination didn't look good for his chances, especially since part of the curse meant he couldn't exactly say "Hi, it's Juno, and I might be slightly hairier than that last time you saw me." Like she'd even believe him.

He managed to dodge a few more strikes before getting trapped against the outside wall of the building. Then, with no other options, he intercepted the next blow with his crossbow, the wood cracking audibly as it took the hit. And he used it to push her back, since it was now useless. Not like it would have been much help in an up close fight when she was moving too fast for him to fire anyway.

Then, the axe was buried into this shoulder, and he screamed. Then it was pulled out of his shoulder and no, that was worse somehow.

"Damn it, Cass," he ground out painfully, stumbling back. "I don't know what the hell you think I did, but I sure as hell didn't kill anyone." Well, he had, but he doubted Cass had ever been particularly attached to Sarah Steel.

"Don't fucking call me that!" He clumsily side-stepped her next swing. "You don't know me! You're just the monster who killed my friend, and now I'm going to make sure your death is a thousand times worse than his!"

"You keep accusing me of killing someone, but you're going to have to be more specific!" He pressed one of his hands against the wound on his shoulder, a messy, not super effective way of trying to put pressure on it, but he didn't have time to do anything else. Fuck, Rita was going to be mad at him.

She growled in frustration. "Of course. Of fucking course you'd forget him! You're just a stupid fucking monster-" She swung again, and in stepping back away from it, he stumbled, hitting the ground. "-and you don't fucking care! Well guess what! I'm going to make you care!"

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Sasha was going to be furious. Mick was probably going to cry, and that would make everyone feel like shit, because Mick crying always made you feel like the worst human being on Earth. Nureyev...fuck, if Nureyev came back then who knew how the fuck he'd react. And Rita...Rita had spent too long trying to help him, and Juno...

Juno didn't want to leave them all behind.

"I'm going to make you care," Cass repeated, no longer shouting. No, the quiet was worse. "This is for Juno, you bastard."

_What?_

She lifted the axe and swung downward, and Juno didn't want to die.

There was the sound of metal hitting metal, and, in front of him, like a knight in stolen armor, was Peter Nureyev, breathing heavily as he shoved a shocked Cass back with his sword, before looking back at Juno.

"N...Ransom," Juno said, staring at him with wide eyes. He could feel his heart beating fast, though he wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline of near death or the way Nureyev was looking at him. "I thought you-"

"I saw Rita's signal," Nureyev explained, before turning back to Cass. "I came back as soon as I could." He lifted his sword again, promising, "I'll hold her off. Just hold on."

"...Yeah...okay."

And Juno watched Peter Nureyev, the thief who had come back for him, the thief whose main ability was to disappear when there was danger, race towards the murderous hunter and fight. For him.

* * *

Rita burst into the ballroom to see Mister Ransom locked in a dramatic battle with the lady hunter, and maybe she would have been invested in something so dramatic and novelesque if it weren't for the fact that she could see Mister Steel on the ground out on the balcony, pressing a hand to a wound that she knew immediately was bad.

And so she ran, ran past Mister Ransom and the hunter lady, ran to Mister Steel's side and began ripping at her skirts, because her things to help fix him up were in her room and she didn't have bandages and she needed something, something to stop the bleeding.

"Don't worry Mistah Steel, I'm gonna patch you right up and you're gonna be okay," Rita promised him, though the part of her that was an apothecary was screaming at her for making a promise like that. "And I got my necklace on so you'll heal faster too, so ya just gotta hold on a bit longer okay? Did I tell you about this new book series Mistah Mercury told me about? It's about this noble lady who goes off and joins a crew of pirates along with her childhood best friend that she's secretly in love with and but she couldn't be with him because she's a noble and he's not but then she becomes king of the pirates and-"

Then, Mister Steel laughed, and Rita blinked.

"Mistah Steel?"

"It's...it's fucking stupid," he muttered, and the arm holding him in sitting position gave out and she cried out in alarm, moving to help him.

"What's stupid?" she asked him, trying to keep him talking. Mister Steel talked a lot, and talking meant he was still there and he wasn't going to die and Rita wasn't going to let him die she refused.

He laughed again, and it sounded...wrong. In the same way that Mister Steel laughing after dumping snow on her head had sounded right.

"C'mon Mistah Steel, I can't know if ya don't tell me." She pressed the ripped fabric to the wound, trying to will her passive magic to just work a little faster, just a little harder, to let her fix this.

"It's funny...I got Sasha and Mick back," he admitted, and there was some emotion she couldn't name there. "And Ransom...he's amazing. And you really managed to make me hope that it'd really get better. That maybe it'd really be okay." His laughter was sad and bitter and it made Rita want to cry. "And I don't want to die. It took me fucking years, but I...I don't want to die."

Rita choked at the words, and she realized she was crying already. But she just kept pressure on the wound and began to ramble on again.

"Now Mistah Steel, don't talk like that, okay? We have adventures we gotta go on. And I gotta introduce ya to Frannie, she's real nice and a really good witch too. And Mistah Ransom and Miss Sasha and Mistah Mercury are here and when the hunters are gone we can all just sit down and I can read a book, or I can hold it and you can read it. You're not gonna die, okay? I'm not gonna let you die."

Rita had seen injuries like this before. Injuries like this bled a lot, and she knew it was an almost certain death sentence. She began to hum, trying to pour magic into the problem, trying to get it to heal just a little faster.

Then, Mister Steel said softly, "Thanks, Rita." And her humming faltered as she sobbed, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly.

"I love you, Mistah Steel," she told him, her voice shaking. And she hummed a bit more desperately, pouring as much pink sparkling light into the wound as she could.

And she felt an arm move around her, and heard him, for the first time, say, "Love you too, Rita."

Then, everything exploded into golden light.

* * *

_Juno blinked his eyes open, and he was standing in a hall, in a body that fit comfortably. And, frozen in front of him, was Sasha, fighting furiously against Cecil, whose fake arm hung limply at his side. And he had a devilish grin on his face, looking unbothered by the fact that he was not doing so great. And in the walls, he could see Mick with a dagger in his hands, looking like he was shaking._

_"Did you figure it out, yet?"_

_Juno whirled around, and there he was. Benzaiten Steel, smiling at him._

_"Ben?" he asked. "What's going on?"_

_Ben laughed at that. "Well, I'd say you finally got it in your skull, didn't you?" He lightly tapped his fist against Juno's head, and Juno swatted at his hand, scowling for a moment before shaking his head. And Ben lightly elbowed him and remarked, "C'mon, let's go to the ballroom."_

_"...You mean where my dead body is?" Juno asked, grimacing. "My very bloody dead body?"_

_"You're not dead," Ben told him, rolling his eyes. "And it's not your body anyway, remember?"_

_"Yeah, but the blood is still blood!"_

_"Wimp."_

_Juno groaned, elbowing him back. "Bastard."_

_The two of them began to walk down the halls toward the ballroom, the silence stretching comfortably for a bit. Juno never remembered the dreams with Ben in them, but he had a feeling they were a lot like this. Just getting a moment to pretend that he was himself again, that Ben was alive, that maybe the past twenty years since he found his brother's corpse and killed his mother before she could kill him were some weird dream._

_But he thought of Rita and Nureyev in that moment, and maybe he didn't want it to be a dream. Maybe he just wanted both to exist simultaneously, have his brother and the people he had never had before his death too._

_Juno Steel never really got what he wanted though. Not usually._

_"So...did you figure it out?" Ben repeated._

_Juno groaned at that. "Figure what out?"_

_"C'mon Super Steel, it's like all those books you liked so much. The big mystery was how to fix the curse, right? So...what was the hidden condition, the one your friend was so worried about?" Ben gave him a smile. "You already know. Just go ahead and say it."_

_He frowned. He didn't know though. Nothing had changed. Rita had told him she loved him, but Rita had always done that._

_...Damn, Rita had always done that. Rita had been doing that for years._

_He should have appreciated it more._

_So, what had changed? Him not wanting to die he guessed, but that didn't have anything to do with true love, as far as he was aware. That had been out of desperation more than anything, because Sasha and Mick and Nureyev and Rita had been there and he...he hadn't wanted to die on them._

_Oh._

_"And there's the eureka moment," Ben remarked, grinning. "The lady who cursed you, she's not human, is she? And if your theory is right, then she's not exactly the kind of person who understands love that well. She would see it less as something given freely, and more of..."_

_"A transaction," Juno answered slowly. "Something agreed upon between two parties."_

_Ben nodded. "People have always loved you, you know? Mick opened that bookstore because of how much he loves reading, and he loves reading because you and I were the ones right by him as he learned how to do it. Sasha became a better knight because she never wanted to let what happened to you happen to anyone else. Cecil and Cass are here because of how much your supposed death hurt, and it made them want to kill all the monsters in the world because maybe it would help. Peter Nureyev came back here the moment he saw a sign you were in danger, even though it was risky. And Rita spent years working on that curse for your sake, because you're not as good at pretending it didn't matter as you liked to think." He threw an arm around Juno's shoulders, pulling him close. "The problem was you."_

_Juno gave a huff of laughter. "Yeah, I've been told that before."_

_"Not like that," Ben corrected. "The problem was that you just couldn't accept it. You always act like the universe is out to get you, that you're not allowed to be happy and have good things. So you just...pushed them away. You saw all those people reaching out as a way to get hurt that you wouldn't reach back. You had that problem even before the curse."_

_"...Yeah."_

_"Kind of a narcissistic way to look at things, you know?" Ben released him, continuing, "The universe doesn't care enough to go after specific people. Sometimes bad things happen. Friendships end, people die, people leave. But not always. No one ever said you weren't allowed to be happy."_

_Rubbing his arm awkwardly, Juno followed Ben into the ballroom, seeing the scene frozen before them._

_Or, more accurately, not seeing it. Because there had been an explosion of golden light, and he could see Nureyev grimacing and covering his eyes, Cass screaming as she was knocked back by the force of it. But beyond that, nothing but light._

_"Seems pretty flashy," he remarked, and Ben shrugged, before meeting his eyes._

_"Do you get it now, though?"_

_And Juno, slowly, nodded. "I just...wouldn't let myself admit I cared about them. Because if I did...then it'd hurt when they left, or they died. If I didn't let them in, then maybe I wouldn't have to hurt as much when that happened."_

_Ben nodded, his smile dropping off his face. "Not the way I wanted to be remembered, you know? As just proof that loving people wasn't worth it because you'd just lose them."_

_"...I'm sorry, Ben."_

_"It wasn't your fault," he told Juno, his voice firm. "It's not your fault I died. And maybe you could be an asshole, but the fact that she literally goaded you into getting cursed wasn't your fault either. You were grieving and yeah, you shouldn't have taken it out on anyone else or isolated yourself because of it, but you didn't deserve that." And then he pulled Juno into a hug, and Juno wrapped his arms around him, holding him tightly. "You are allowed to be happy. I want you to be happy."_

_Juno buried his face in his brother's shoulders, blinking through the tears. This probably wasn't real, and even if it was it would be gone soon enough, but he wanted to remember this anyway, remember it in the way he couldn't remember the dreams when he woke up._

_Finally, Ben released him, smiling a watery smile before saying, "You ready to go, Super Steel?"_

_And Juno looked at his brother, still nineteen years old and smiling, and he nodded. "Yeah...Goodbye, Ben."_

_And then he blinked_ and the golden light was blinding him, and he could hear Cass screaming and feel Rita's arms around his neck and one of his arms around her, and something was off because he was pretty sure he was awake, but his body felt...normal. Like it wasn't too big to fit in.

(The pain was gone too, and he wasn't sure about it, but fuck if he was going to question it.)

Then the golden light was gone, and he blinked for a moment, the splotches of light burned into his retinas fading, and Rita was still clinging to him and shaking and she wasn't quite as small as she had always been.

And then he noticed his arm, noticed the now-faded scars and the regular skin with a regular amount of arm hair and regular fingernails on his fingers instead of fur and claws, and he took a shallow breath at that.

"Rita?" he asked, a little hesitantly. But Rita didn't let him go, just clung to him and shook. "Rita, look."

And Rita finally did pull away, allowing him to sit up again, and she stared at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. And then she laughed, bright and teary, before pulling him into another hug.

"It's you!" she cried out, her voice filled with watery excitement. "Oh my gosh, Mistah Steel, you're just a pretty as I thought you'd be! It's really...it's really you!"

And Juno laughed too, holding her tight. "You did it, Rita. You really did it."

She had promised, after all. Over and over. Juno never should have doubted her for a second.

"Juno!" And he looked up to see Nureyev staring at him, and he didn't have time to worry before Nureyev smiled in a way that made his heart race and god he might love this man, rushing over to them and joining the hug. And Rita and Juno adjusted themselves so he was well and truly part of it, and Juno clung to them and let out a relieved sob, because this was real. This was actually real.

"Cassandra! I heard you screaming and I was-" And Cecil, in a move that surprised everyone, stopped talking.

"Jay!" Mick shouted, already sounding like he was crying, and Rita and Nureyev let Juno go just as Mick crashed into him, nearly throwing him to the floor as he did. And he didn't even have time to complain about it before Sasha was there, and yeah he guessed this was on par with an assumed death.

And if Juno Steel cried in that moment, then there was no one who could really blame him.

* * *

Cass stared at her old friend, the friend she had thought was _dead_ , surrounded by all these people so much she could barely see him anymore, and she reached out and stopped Cecil from getting too close.

"Oh this is amazing, Cassandra!" Cecil cried out, his voice so goddamn happy that Cass wanted to cringe. "He's alive!" Then, he looked at Cass, and his face fell. "What's wrong? Aren't you excited?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, and instead of speaking, she let out a quiet, strangled sob, and Cecil didn't hesitate to pull her into a hug at that.

She had nearly killed him.

She had nearly killed Juno trying to get revenge for his death. 

"It's alright, Cassandra," Cecil assured her a little frantically. He wasn't very good at comforting, which wasn't much of a surprise. "It's alright. You didn't know, after all. All you had was a letter, neither of us could have known that-"

Then Cass blinked, and the realization hit her.

" _Min,_ " she growled out, pulling herself from Cecil's arms, and she watched as Cecil came to the same realization as she did. "She knew. She had to have known. She was the one who gave us that goddamn letter about him being here. That bitch set us up to go after him and _she knew_."

The letter, declaring the monster that had killed Juno now lived in his old castle, claiming that it had killed even more people in the interim. She had known something was off about it, had known Min giving them _anything_ was suspect. But she had been so focused on finally killing her friend's murderer that she hadn't even considered that it could have been a set up.

"Then we'll do what we do best, of course," Cecil remarked, and the grin on his face was absolutely evil. "We'll go _kill the monster_. She won't have been the worst one we've ever fought, right?"

And before Cass could answer that, there was a very pointed "Ahem", and the two of them turned to see Juno looking at them, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at them. His pants were too large, appearing to have been haphazardly tied around his waist, and he was shirtless, allow Cass to see a scar where she had hit him with her axe. She didn't know how he had survived that, or how he had healed so fast. She wasn't going to question it though.

"You know, this wasn't exactly how I wanted to see you two again," he remarked, his tone incredibly flat. Then he sighed and opened his arms, muttering, "Here you go, Cecil."

And Cecil burst into dramatic tears and threw himself on Juno dramatically, crying out, "Junebug!" And Juno awkwardly pat his back, looking up to meet Cass' eyes with his own and rolling his eyes as he pretended not to smile.

"We...we literally just tried to kill you," Cass pointed out, her voice shaking slightly. She didn't add that she nearly succeeded. She was sure he already knew.

"So did Sasha, and for the same reason," Juno added. "This isn't even the first time Cecil tried to kill me."

"...Fair enough." Then Cass went ahead and threw herself over to join the hug, nearly knocking Juno over in the process, and said, "Missed you, jackass."

* * *

Min Kanagawa was working in her office when she was struck by a new desire from her charges. And her frustration was immediately overwhelmed by dread as she realized what they wanted.

Whoever had decided to assign her the role of fairy godmother had better hope she didn't find them before her charges killed her.

Their death would be excruciating.

* * *

Annie Wire opened the door to her house, expecting to just see Sasha by herself as she did, and instead found herself looking at her sister, a brightly grinning Mick, and someone who shouldn't have been there at all, and yet despite the faded scars on his face and arms and the fact that he was twice as old as he had been the last time she had seen him, she knew immediately who it was.

"Oh you motherfucker!" Annie shouted, before dragging Juno into a crushing hug. "You absolute piece of garbage!"

And Juno laughed at that.

"No, fuck you! Don't laugh! Get the fuck in my house so I can beat the shit out of you without getting arrested!" And she didn't release him from the hug even as she did, which was probably why Juno just kept laughing. "You better have a damn good explanation for this you stupid jackass."

Sasha snorted, explaining, "It's a long story. Maybe refrain from tearing Juno a new one until we can explain."

Annie gave the most exaggerated sigh at that, finally letting go of Juno as she did. "Alright, fine. But I'm not happy about it." And she may have said that with a cheek-splitting grin on her face, but that didn't mean anything of course. "Get your ass inside, Juno."

Juno gave her an exaggerated salute. "Yes ma'am."

She rolled her eyes and inside the house they went.

Yeah, Sasha hadn't been lying when she had written. Because this was probably some of the best news she had heard in a long time.

* * *

Peter watched as Juno stood at the edge of the beach, looking out at the ocean as the waves passed over his bare feet and retreated just as fast. The only sound that could be heard was the waves.

Then, Juno turned to him, and asked, "You just going to stand there, Nureyev?" And there was a smile on his face that, along with his name in that voice that made it sound precious, made Peter absolutely breathless.

He had done his best not to give himself any expectations for what Juno looked like without the curse, and yet all of them had been blown out of the water. Maybe it was because he had already been most of the way there, if not in love then incredibly close, and he had been biased even before Juno looked at him with those beautiful human brown eyes and it had sunk in that this was him, the way he was supposed to be. And he was beautiful.

Peter walked over, moving to stand beside Juno on the sand, and when Juno reached out and took his hand, he threaded their fingers together and smiled.

"You were right," Juno said, his voice quiet. "It really is beautiful." Then, he tore his eyes away from the sight again and met Peter's, adding, "Thank you."

"Of course," Peter answered, lifting their clasped hands and pressing a kiss to Juno's. "I promised, didn't I? This, and whatever else you want to see afterward." And he knew, in that moment, he would take Juno wherever he wanted to go.

Juno gave a smile, a genuine one that looked right on his face, and said, "That's going to take awhile, you know? Are you sure you want to put up with me for that long?"

"Oh Juno," he answered, moving forward and placing his other hand on Juno's cheek. "There's nothing I'd love more." And he leaned down, and they kissed.

It was a wonderful moment, Peter decided, and he hoped they'd have many more like it.

"Mistah Steel! Mistah Ransom!"

Of course, it couldn't last forever, and Juno quickly pulled away, an embarrassed expression on his face as he turned to where Rita was rooting through the tidal pools.

"Damn it, Rita!" he called, trying to look annoyed, and Rita giggled at the expression on his face, unbothered. And Peter laughed too, pressing another kiss to one of Juno's cheeks."

"I found some weird creatures in here and they're so cool! You and Mistah Ransom should come see them!"

Juno shook his head, sighing.

"Well Juno, you were the one who insisted she come," Peter reminded him, leading the way over to where Rita was waving at them. And Juno sighed again, but Peter could hear the fondness in his voice at that.

"Fair enough."

* * *

"Hey Mistah Steel?" Rita asked.

"Hmm?"

They were sitting in an unfamiliar room, though the situation itself was familiar enough. Sitting by a fire, Nureyev sleeping at Juno's side with an arm wrapped around him to hold him close, and it was different now that Juno was much shorter than him, but definitely not bad. And Rita was curled up on the couch, a book in her hands, but she was looking up at it with a smile on her face.

It was just another stop on their travels. Nureyev had told them about the city they were heading to, about the food and the sights and everything, and Juno knew that was where he wanted to go next. He was still getting used to crowded areas, after years of only Rita and then months of only a few people around, but they weren't as overwhelming as they had been when he had gone to the capital to see Annie.

"Are you happy?" she asked, and Juno paused.

It hadn't been easy, of course. His brain was still a mess, and he had nightmares about waking up and being back in that too big body, about Cass or Cecil or Sasha killing him and being unable to say anything to stop them, about losing Ben or Rita or Nureyev or any of the people he cared about. Getting used to being surrounded by people after years of what was essentially isolation was hard. Fighting his instincts to push Rita or Nureyev away, to not let himself enjoy this because he was scared of getting hurt, was even harder.

And yet...

He looked over at Nureyev, breathing softly as he slept at Juno's side, before looking up and meeting Rita's eyes again. They were here with him, and even if the rest of the people he cared about weren't there, he could always see them again. And the familiar grief wasn't so suffocating anymore, because he had gotten to say goodbye.

"Yeah," he decided, nodding firmly. "I think I am."

And he held Nureyev close and let a smile reach his face as Rita grinned at him, and he knew that, at least for now, it was the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes (aka stuff that I couldn't really find a place to put in the story):  
> * Magical expression (at least with active magic) depends on who someone is and how they want to be seen. Rita has pink sparkles because they're bright, cute, and they give a non-threatening impression that she wants because she'd like to not die if someone happens to see her use magic. Min's is golden light because she's a Rich Bitch who wants to be seen as more powerful and sophisticated than she is.  
> * Cecil's arm was part of a deal that Croesus made with Min. Cass and Cecil don't know she was involved, just that Cecil was given a wooden arm that looks human when he wears it. Croesus didn't tell them where he got it from, and what he had to do. Cecil personally doesn't care, and Cass doesn't want to know.  
> * I imagine sometime later Juno, Peter, and Rita all become pirates and join Buddy's crew and then go on high seas adventures.  
> * I really wanted to, at some point, put Peter and Juno having a conversation about Mag into this story. I just couldn't find a place to fit it though, especially since I was trying to balance the POVs a bit more as I approached the climax and so it didn't happen.
> 
> All in all, this fic was a surprise, because it came up on the heels of a creative dry spell and ended up being so much bigger than I had intended? I might write a couple of stories to flesh out some stuff, like Rita and Juno meeting in this AU or some stuff to do with Annie since she lived to adulthood in this AU. For now though, this is already a lot more than expected.
> 
> My Tumblr is [boopboopitydoop](https://boopboopitydoop.tumblr.com). Feel free to shoot me a message on there if you want!
> 
> Edit:  
> Someone drew [fanart!](https://boopboopitydoop.tumblr.com/post/616991836965322752) I am actually crying this is amazing.
> 
> Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo:  
> So the artist ended up leaving Tumblr, so I fixed the link so that it would be directed to my reblog of the art so it's still accessible. I also removed the link to her deactivated account, as it just led nowhere. I still adore the hell out of it, and while I can no longer speak to the artist directly, I do hope she knows just how much I appreciate her and the work she put into this art.


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